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The dense green jungle and rust-red elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its equipment is not: it comes from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and other charges and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to resume PFAS production.

A Toxic Legacy

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been exposed through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the blood are linked to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her children’s blood showed high levels of forever chemicals. 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. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Shipping records show that, to secure validation on the standard 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.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, beauty products and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near production sites. But even though global focus is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district 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 rural Maharashtra state, the facility fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, import and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, 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.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s always a risk.”