🔗 Share this article Where Does a Western Chemical Plant That Contaminated Drinking Water Go Next? Heading to India The lush green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, lead 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 originates from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water resources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, 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 methods – everything needed to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to resume PFAS production. An Environmental Burden Once known for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water. The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of PFAS documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti. Ex-employee Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of Pfas in his blood. Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are linked to higher chances of cancer, heart conditions, organ impairment, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure. Public Apprehensions Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood showed elevated amounts 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 concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.” Business Shift Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”. Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the company went bankrupt. Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries. Strategic Expansion By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods. Regulatory Context Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet. “Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist 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 only a handful.” 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 income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said. The chemical district is served by 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 release polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in recent years. International Ramifications In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be driving the sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s production, 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 global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of environmental protection.” Persistent Threats 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 likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations. “That region has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”