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The lush green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, lead to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it originates from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after one of the worst environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

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 manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been subjected through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, showed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings 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 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 “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity established in 2021. Also included 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 prison. Per a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm 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 explicitly spelled out the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out 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 fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be used in pesticides, medicines, colorants, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that levels of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies 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 manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

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

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in the countryside, the plant cannot function and industries release contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the site in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, import and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This attention may be driving the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for generations.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”