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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is far from new: it originates from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting 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, which they are expected to appeal against.

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

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been subjected through drinking water.

The most impacted 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 associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives minimized ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity 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 June trial and given six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and factories release contaminated effluent directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal 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 University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, patents and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the power that these global corporations have to move in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect populations that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”