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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it comes from the former Miteni factory 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 brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “When the story came to light, 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 linked to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was shocked.

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

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO 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 prison. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches 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 completely active, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the Indian government 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 these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

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 livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in the countryside, the plant cannot function and factories discharge contaminated effluent directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to ban the production, importation and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, according to 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 machinery have been transferred to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”