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The dense tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along 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 not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after one of the worst environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

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

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to produce Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of residents had been exposed through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of Pfas documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the blood are linked to higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Since our kids 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 only bidder in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the recent court case and given 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 prior to the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data show that, to secure validation on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in pesticides, medicines, dyes, cosmetics and other products.

Regulatory Context

Studies demonstrate that levels of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But although international attention is growing, in India the issue 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 academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and factories discharge contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have sent several warning letters to the site in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to prohibit the manufacture, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to move in nations where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”