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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky.

This industrial unit 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 decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was brought to trial for polluting water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court 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?

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now located at 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 produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated levels of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of residents had been subjected through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

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

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating 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 final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

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 intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is growing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in various regions. But these studies are limited in scope, 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 set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area 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 frequent event in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and industries release contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with Pfas production are likely to affect populations that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

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