🔗 Share this article Where Does a European Manufacturing Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water Move On? To India The lush green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a factory looms under the open sky. The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated. Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again. An Environmental Burden Once known for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated levels of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of residents had been subjected through potable water. The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, showed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti. Ex-employee Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of Pfas in his blood. Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the blood are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure. Community Concerns Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her children’s blood showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being sent to India, she was stunned. “Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.” Business Shift After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with EU regulations”. Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse. While Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries. Growth Plans By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and additional goods. Regulatory Context Investigations demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet. “Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “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 South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region completely collapsed,” she said. The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized. “The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in the countryside, the plant cannot function and industries discharge polluted water straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years. Global Implications In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal to ban the manufacture, import and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.” Persistent Threats Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations. “That region has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”