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The lush tropical forest and rust-red elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its equipment is far from new: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership 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 sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

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

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – everything needed to produce forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the factory has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, showed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are associated with higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing 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 women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded 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 sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

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 production of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But even though international attention 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 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 performed research in various regions. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and industries release contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a proposal to ban the production, import and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”