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The dense tropical forest and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it comes from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was brought to trial for polluting water sources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its expertise in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “When the story came to light, I reviewed 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, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, 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 Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as females, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, 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 en route to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the June trial and given six years and four months in prison. According to a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report 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 offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

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 manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and other products.

Environmental Oversight

Studies have shown that levels of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source 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. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the site in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the manufacture, import and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”