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The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown 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 equipment is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory 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 persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was brought to trial for contaminating water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

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

And yet, the entire operational setup, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been exposed through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, displayed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the blood are linked to higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“As mothers, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management 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 founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective 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 quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out 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 utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that levels of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies 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 industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” 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. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries release contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, importation and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be driving the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and equipment have been relocated 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 countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”