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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery 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 nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

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

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

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, showed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, 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 offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member 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 recent court case and given 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.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report 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 did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the quality 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 site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator 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 fishing populations in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

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

“Nearby communities have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in the countryside, the plant cannot function and industries release polluted water directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the site in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a proposal to ban the manufacture, import and use of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a country like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the power that these global corporations have to move 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 manufacturing are expected to impact populations that are facing an unsafe environment for generations.

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