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The lush green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted 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?

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among villages and groves of trees. And the factory has recently begun to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its specialism in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through potable 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 human blood. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a catalog of health issues associated with PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the blood are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked.

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

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the June trial and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the firm’s collapse.

While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and other products.

Regulatory Context

Studies have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around 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 not present in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “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 at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities 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 release contaminated effluent straight into the streams.” Environmental authorities 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, import and use of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the industry to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the influence that these multinationals have to relocate in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom 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 linked to Pfas production are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”