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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down 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 prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

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

And yet, the entire operational setup, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between villages and groves of trees. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been exposed through drinking water.

The most impacted 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 reviewed a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked.

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

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that levels of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

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 income source of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

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

“The local villages have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and factories release polluted water straight into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the power that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect populations that are facing an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”