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The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the local tribunal of environmental damage and additional offenses 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 methods – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been subjected through drinking water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed 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 related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“As mothers, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial 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 months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s product list. 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 indicate that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though international attention is growing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator 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 income source of fishing populations in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in the countryside, the plant fails to operate and factories discharge polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be driving the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the power that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

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