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.
This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is not: it comes from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was brought to trial for polluting water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.
Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes
Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to resume PFAS production.
An Environmental Burden
Once known for its specialism in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been exposed through potable water.
The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded 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,” states Ermetti.
High levels of PFAS in the blood are linked to increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.
Public Apprehensions
Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.
“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”
Corporate Transition
After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.
Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the firm’s collapse.
While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.
Strategic Expansion
By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.
From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.
Environmental Oversight
Studies demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But although international attention 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 environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”
Regional Consequences
Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities 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 frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and factories release polluted water directly into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the site in the past few years.
International Ramifications
In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to ban the production, importation and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I think that this issue should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to move in nations 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 lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect populations that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.
“That region has experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”
