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The lush green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, lead to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water resources in an area home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

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

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 thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, scientists 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 worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to increased risk of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. 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 discovering her children’s blood showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

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

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its president, 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 convicted 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 traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data show that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including 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, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” 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 very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” 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 malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility fails to operate and factories discharge polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This attention may be driving 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 operations, patents and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”