Where Does a European Manufacturing Facility Which Polluted Drinking Water Move On? To India

The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a factory looms under the open sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – everything needed to produce forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to increased risk of cancer, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“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 acquired 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, all the equipment was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties 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 fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Growth Plans

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. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the quality 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 location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that levels of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government 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 this work 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 totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant 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 rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and factories release contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices 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 sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”