Northwest Indiana is the Calumet — the eastern half of the great Chicago steel-and-refining district, and it never stopped at the state line. U.S. Steel’s Gary Works, the Inland Steel and later ArcelorMittal mills at East Chicago, Bethlehem Steel at Burns Harbor, and the BP Whiting refinery ran along the Lake Michigan shore for a century. Steelmaking and refining are among the most asbestos-intensive industries there is, and the region’s trades were reportedly exposed for full careers.
Indiana allows two years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file a personal-injury claim (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4), and two years from the date of death for a wrongful-death claim (§ 34-23-1-1). Indiana has no statute of repose for asbestos cases — the Indiana Supreme Court struck down the ten-year manufacturing cutoff in Myers v. Crouse-Hinds (2016) — so a claim is not barred by how long ago the exposure occurred. Cases are filed in the county Circuit or Superior Court of proper venue; Indiana has no statewide asbestos MDL.