Where Will a European Manufacturing Facility Which Polluted Drinking Water Move On? Heading to India

The dense tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it originates from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. 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.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of PFAS documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the blood are associated with higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the June trial and sentenced to 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 months before the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, such as 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 agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, cosmetics and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in different states. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

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 income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and industries release polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, importation and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be driving the sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact continues – 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 generations.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”