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

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – everything needed to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been exposed through drinking water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of Pfas documented in human blood. “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 malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, 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 activist with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management minimized ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the June trial and given six years and four months in prison. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory 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 requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal 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 compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. 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 Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

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

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to relocate 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 continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an hazardous setting for years to come.

“The area has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”