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The lush green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it originates from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, 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 processes – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among local communities and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of inhabitants had been subjected 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 reviewed a list of medical conditions related to Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are linked to increased risk of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as females, 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 branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. 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 shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and false accounting at the June trial and given 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 bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning 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 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 quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near manufacturing facilities. 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 unacknowledged by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility fails to operate and factories discharge contaminated effluent directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, import and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I believe that this issue should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

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 already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

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