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The dense tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for contaminating water resources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

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

Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its intellectual property and processes – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations 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 one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

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

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” 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 Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to firms 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 fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But although international attention is increasing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and industries discharge contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Regulatory bodies have sent several warning letters to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a proposal to ban the production, importation and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the sector to the global south, 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 equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is evidently 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 polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are likely to affect populations that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“That region has seen enough environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”