To Which Location Will a Western Chemical Plant Which Polluted Water Supplies Move On? To India
The dense green jungle and rust-red hills of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open 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 one of the worst environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.
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Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.
An Environmental Burden
Once known for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. 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 one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.
High levels of Pfas in the bloodstream are linked to higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.
Community Concerns
Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed 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 women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”
Business Shift
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 only bidder 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 management minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to EU regulations”.
Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO 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. Per a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt.
Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.
Growth Plans
By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.
From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and other products.
Environmental Oversight
Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.
“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”
Local Impact
Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this region completely collapsed,” she said.
The chemical district is served by 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. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in the countryside, the facility cannot function and factories discharge contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.
International Ramifications
In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the sector to the developing nations, 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, intellectual assets and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”
Ongoing Risks
Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site 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 years to come.
“The area has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”