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

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted 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?

And yet, the entire operational setup, its intellectual property and methods – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its specialism in creating methods for advanced chemicals, 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. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches 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 completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies demonstrate that levels of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although international attention is growing, in India the issue is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in different states. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

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 established in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and factories discharge contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have sent several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the manufacture, importation and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”