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The dense tropical forest and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty 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

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – all required components to produce Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been exposed through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in blood samples. “When the story came to light, I looked at a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the June trial and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the factory in Lote shows 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 inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that levels of forever chemicals in the environment are alarmingly high, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries release polluted water straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact populations that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

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