To Which Location Does a Western Chemical Plant That Contaminated Water Supplies Move On? Heading to India

The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

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 almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated concentrations of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after discovering 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 shocked.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, 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 last chief executive 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 prison. Per a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for pesticides, medicines, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Studies have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups 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, coordinator 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 served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and factories discharge polluted water directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a race to the bottom 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 associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s always a risk.”