Where Does a Western Chemical Plant Which Polluted Drinking Water Go Next? Heading to India

The lush green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, lead to a small hill where a factory looms under the open sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is far from new: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

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

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been exposed through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, showed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the blood are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

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

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, 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 Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“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 environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head 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 established in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant 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 cannot function and industries release contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the site in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to ban the manufacture, importation and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be pushing the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in nations where there is clearly 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 production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has seen enough environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”