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The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, 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 factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after one of the worst environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

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 large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

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

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, 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 en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Another 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 prison. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source 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. “During power outages, a common occurrence in the countryside, the facility cannot function and industries release contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”