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The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky.

The factory 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 after one of the worst ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed?

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – all required components to produce Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the plant 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 notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being sent to India, she was stunned.

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

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management minimized ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Another 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. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to 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 company was already intending to start producing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to secure validation on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out 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 completely active, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But although international attention is increasing, 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 as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility cannot function and industries discharge contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the site in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to ban the production, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”