To Which Location Will a European Chemical Plant Which Polluted Water Supplies Move On? To India

The lush green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, lead to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water resources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its specialism in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated levels of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. 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 specialty chemicals division, displayed 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 found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

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 public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management minimized ecological worries, 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 board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in jail. Per a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the quality of the chemicals, 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 location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. But even though global focus is growing, in India the issue is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But this work 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 income source of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in the countryside, the plant fails to operate and factories release contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to ban the manufacture, import and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to move in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – 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 experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”