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The lush green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its equipment is far from new: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – all required components to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated levels of PFAS compounds 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, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a list of medical conditions related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the blood are linked to higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was shocked.

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

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men 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 environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already intending to start producing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to companies 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 pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent 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. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in various regions. But this work 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 industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and industries release contaminated effluent directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and use of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the power that these multinationals have to move in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

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

“That region has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”