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

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it originates from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of residents had been subjected through potable 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 documented in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mothers Against 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 shocked.

“As mothers, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. 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 board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be used in pesticides, medicines, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. But although global focus is increasing, in India the issue is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” 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 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 industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

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

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility cannot function and factories discharge contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the site in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal to ban the manufacture, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in nations where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”