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The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was brought to trial for contaminating water sources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the local tribunal of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at 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 specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to increased risk of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked.

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

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets 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 commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to get approval on the standard 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.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals 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 not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and factories release contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to ban the manufacture, import and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards 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 medical effects linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact populations that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”