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The dense green jungle and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way 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 comes from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal 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?

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

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

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of PFAS ever recorded in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the blood are linked to increased risk of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being sent to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

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 ecological offenses and financial misreporting 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 taking business trips to India months before the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the building 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 declined to answer inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data show that, to secure validation on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies 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 fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. But although international attention 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 Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

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 income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in the countryside, the plant fails to operate and factories release contaminated effluent directly into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have issued multiple notices to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to ban the production, import and use of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a race to the bottom 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 expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”