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The dense green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is far from new: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, the entire operational setup, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants 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, showed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are linked to increased risk of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“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 acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives 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 directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Another 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. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But even though 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 those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in various regions. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to ban the production, import and use of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

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