🔗 Share this article

The lush green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a factory looms under the open sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its equipment is far from new: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, the entire operational setup, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave 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 specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been subjected through drinking water.

The most impacted 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 blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the blood are associated with increased risk of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO 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 requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that levels of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in different states. 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 established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

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

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to ban the manufacture, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s always a risk.”