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The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is far from new: it originates from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after one of the worst ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and other charges 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 – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants 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, showed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, 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 Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing 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 “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to firms 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, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is increasing, in India the matter 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 as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

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 set up in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“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 factories discharge polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the manufacture, import and use of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be pushing the sector to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I believe that this issue should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to move in countries where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with Pfas production are likely to affect communities that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come.

“The area has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”