🔗 Share this article

The dense green jungle and reddish-brown 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 largely newly built, but its machinery is far from new: it originates from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

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

Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. 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 children’s blood showed high levels of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery 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.”

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, 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, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, 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 entity founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the June trial and given six years and four months in prison. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

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

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to companies 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 used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies have shown that levels of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around production sites. But although international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in various regions. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and factories discharge contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the site in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the production, import and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the power that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

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 manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has seen enough environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”