Mesothelioma and asbestos exposure in Gary

U.S. Steel founded Gary in the early 1900s to house workers for its new lakefront mill. Gary Works became one of the largest steel plants in the world, and its blast furnaces, coke ovens and rolling mills relied on asbestos for insulation and heat protection. Workers used asbestos gloves, aprons and blankets, and maintenance crews repaired asbestos-insulated steam lines and furnace linings. Dust from these materials spread through work areas and onto clothing. The mill ran around the clock, and relining furnaces, repairing ladles and patching steam lines were constant jobs. Workers in many different departments spent time near that maintenance work.

Northwest Indiana became an industrial belt stretching from Gary to East Chicago and Whiting. Neighboring steel mills and one of the Midwest's largest oil refineries added more places where asbestos insulation and gaskets were used. Many Gary families worked at more than one of these sites over a lifetime, and contractors moved between them. Because mesothelioma takes decades to appear, people who worked in these mills during the peak years are still being diagnosed. Union records from the steelworkers and building trades, along with company pay records, often help reconstruct which departments and plants a worker moved through over a long career.