🔗 Share this article To Which Location Will a Western Chemical Plant That Contaminated Water Supplies Go Next? To India The lush green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, 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 ceased operations in 2018 after one of the worst 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 sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against. Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production. An Environmental Burden Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water. The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, showed among the top levels of PFAS documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti. Ex-employee Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of PFAS in his blood. High levels of PFAS in the blood are associated with higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation. Public Apprehensions Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was stunned. “As mothers, as females, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.” Business Shift After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”. Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in prison. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the firm’s collapse. Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets 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 commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment. Growth Plans By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing 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 fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, colorants, beauty products and additional goods. Regulatory Context Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet. “If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. 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 income source of fisher folk communities in this region completely collapsed,” she said. The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints. “The local villages have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility cannot function and industries discharge contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have sent multiple notices to the plant in recent years. Global Implications In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the production, import and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the industry to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.” Ongoing Risks Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are facing an hazardous setting for generations. “That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”