🔗 Share this article To Which Location Will a Western Manufacturing Facility That Contaminated Water Supplies Move On? Heading to India The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky. The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated. Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again. An Environmental Burden Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water. The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti. Former Miteni worker Ilario Ermetti showed a high concentration of PFAS in his blood. High levels of PFAS in the blood are associated with higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure. Community Concerns Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked. “As mothers, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.” Corporate Transition Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to investors. Records of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”. Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. According to a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse. Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already intending to start producing 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 goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in pesticides, medicines, colorants, cosmetics and other products. Environmental Oversight Investigations demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet. “Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.” Local Impact Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said. The chemical district is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints. “Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and industries release contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years. Global Implications In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, importation and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence 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 shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come. “That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”