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The lush green jungle and rust-red elevations 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 machinery is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court 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, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has just started 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 bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I reviewed 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 increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and more. 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 discovering her children’s blood 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 concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized 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 the Italian branch, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in jail. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds 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 become a leader in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in various regions. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

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 fisher folk communities in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in the countryside, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, importation and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the power that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”