🔗 Share this article To Which Location Will a European Manufacturing Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water Go Next? To India The lush green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky. The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against. What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed? Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and groves of trees. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production. An Environmental Burden Once known for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been subjected through drinking water. The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of PFAS documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti. Former Miteni worker Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of Pfas in his blood. Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure. Community Concerns Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked. “Being parents, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.” Corporate Transition Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with European standards”. Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt. Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries. Strategic Expansion By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, colorants, beauty products and additional goods. Environmental Oversight Investigations demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet. “Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.” Local Impact Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this region totally deteriorated,” she said. The industrial area is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints. “Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and factories release contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in the past few years. Global Implications In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, import and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.” Persistent Threats Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come. “That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”