🔗 Share this article

The dense tropical forest and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and other charges and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed?

Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations 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 fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned 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. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and given 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 prior to the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

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 specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies 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 completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and industries discharge contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to ban the manufacture, import and use of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny 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 reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”