🔗 Share this article

The lush tropical forest and rust-red elevations of Lote, located on 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 not: it originates from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage 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?

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been exposed through potable water.

The worst-affected 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 ever recorded 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.

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

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the June trial and sentenced to 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.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties 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 commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, medicines, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, 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 currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. 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 manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and factories release contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to ban the production, import and use of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to relocate 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 continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”