🔗 Share this article

The lush green jungle and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water resources in an area home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its specialism in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, showed among the top levels of Pfas documented in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the blood are associated with increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her children’s blood showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and false accounting at the recent court case 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 prior to the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the objective 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 compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as 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 pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent 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.”

Regional Consequences

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 income source of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in the countryside, the facility cannot function and industries release contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have sent multiple notices to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in countries where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”