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

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it comes from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region 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, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas 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 fluorinated chemical department, showed one of the highest concentrations 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,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are linked to higher chances of cancer, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

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

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, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its chairman, 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 established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive 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. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already intending to start producing fluorochemicals 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 manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “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 regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on 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. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water directly into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a plan to ban the manufacture, import and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be driving the sector to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”