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

The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the defunct 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 persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been exposed through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a list of medical conditions related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in prison. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to 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 start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the goal 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 secure validation on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with previous commercial ties 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 pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, 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 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 chemical district is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the plant fails to operate and factories discharge polluted water straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the sector to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the reality 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 power that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”