🔗 Share this article To Which Location Does a Western Manufacturing Facility Which Polluted Water Supplies Move On? Heading to India The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky. This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against. What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed? And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the factory has just started to produce forever chemicals again. An Environmental Burden Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water. The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, showed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti. Ex-employee Ilario Ermetti showed a high concentration of Pfas in his blood. Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation. Community Concerns Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked. “As mothers, as females, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.” Business Shift After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with EU regulations”. Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the firm’s collapse. Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment. Growth Plans By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods. Regulatory Context Studies have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the issue is not on the political agenda yet. “If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.” Local Impact Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said. The industrial area is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized. “Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the plant cannot function and factories discharge polluted water directly into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years. International Ramifications In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a plan to ban the manufacture, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these multinationals have to relocate in nations where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.” Ongoing Risks Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come. “That region has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”