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The lush green jungle and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is far from new: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the local tribunal of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of PFAS ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, 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 Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her children’s blood showed elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being sent to India, she was stunned.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” 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 open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to investors. Records of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive 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 prison. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

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

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the facility fails to operate and industries discharge contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to ban the production, importation and use of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been relocated to a country 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.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”