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The dense green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for contaminating water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted 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

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – all required components to produce Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been exposed through potable 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 blood samples. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“As mothers, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

Although 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 firm was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though international attention is growing, in India the issue is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities 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 release contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the site in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, importation and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be pushing the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are likely to affect populations that are facing an hazardous setting for years to come.

“That region has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s always a risk.”