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The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court 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?

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been subjected through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, displayed among the top levels of Pfas documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

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

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in prison. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for pesticides, medicines, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. 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 conducted studies in different states. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility cannot function and industries release polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a proposal to ban the manufacture, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the sector to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s always a risk.”