About Praxair Steel Technologies Burns Harbor Indiana

The Praxair Steel Technologies facility sits in Porter County, along Lake Michigan’s southern shore — inside one of the most heavily industrialized corridors in the United States. Burns Harbor developed as part of Northwest Indiana’s integrated steel manufacturing region, built to serve Bethlehem Steel Burns Harbor (now operating as Cleveland-Cliffs following ArcelorMittal’s acquisition) and related operations that defined the regional economy for generations.

Northwest Indiana’s steel corridor — stretching from Gary through East Chicago, Whiting, and Burns Harbor — represented one of the densest concentrations of heavy industrial asbestos use in the country. Facilities including U.S. Steel Gary Works and Inland Steel East Chicago operated in the same regional corridor using substantially similar construction materials, equipment specifications, and contractor workforces during the peak asbestos-use era.

Praxair, Inc. merged with Germany-based Linde AG in 2018 and now operates as Linde plc — one of the largest industrial gas producers in the world. At Burns Harbor, Praxair Steel Technologies operated as an on-site industrial gas supplier, producing and delivering oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and specialty process gases that fed steelmaking operations directly, including blast furnace production, basic oxygen steelmaking, continuous casting, and heat treatment.

The Burns Harbor facility went through multiple construction phases, expansions, and renovation cycles across several decades. Each phase created conditions where workers may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials: Original construction (1960s–early 1970s) featuring peak asbestos use in thermal insulation, fireproofing, and pipe wrapping; Expansions (mid-1970s–1980s) with additional vessels, piping systems, and equipment installation; and Maintenance and renovation (1980s–1990s) involving disturbance of existing asbestos-containing materials during equipment overhauls, pipe repairs, and facility updates.

Praxair’s Burns Harbor operation ran in close physical and operational integration with the adjacent Bethlehem Steel complex. The infrastructure supporting gas production — piping, vessels, boilers, heat exchangers, and insulation systems — required asbestos-containing materials.

General Equipment at Praxair Steel Technologies Burns Harbor Indiana

The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.

Coke Ovens View crosswalk › Blast Furnaces View crosswalk › Open Hearth Furnaces View crosswalk › Pouring Ladles View crosswalk › Hot Tops View crosswalk › Rolling Mills View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Refractory Brick View crosswalk › Cooling Beds View crosswalk › Industrial Boilers View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence — Indiana

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.

No IDEM NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.

Material Categories in Documented Records

The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Praxair Steel Technologies Burns Harbor Indiana

Praxair employees, contractor laborers, and maintenance personnel — including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1, USW Local 1014 (Gary), Boilermakers Local 374, Asbestos Workers Local 18, and other skilled trades unions active throughout the Northwest Indiana steel corridor — may have worked in structures and on equipment built when asbestos-containing materials were standard throughout heavy industrial construction.

Workers at Burns Harbor who performed the following tasks during the 1960s–1970s period may have been exposed to asbestos-containing materials: Installing calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos, and pipe insulation insulation on piping and vessels; Applying spray-applied fireproofing fireproofing by spray or trowel; Installing Cranite and Superex gaskets during pipe assembly and valve work; Repairing and maintaining insulated piping, vessels, and equipment; Performing electrical work in areas where asbestos-containing conduit and cable insulation was installed; Working in enclosed spaces where asbestos dust generated by other trades settled on surfaces and tools. Bystander exposure — fiber inhalation by workers in the vicinity of cutting, grinding, or spray operations performed by other trades — was well-documented in Northwest Indiana steel facilities and was often as dangerous as direct handling.

Rotating shift patterns, shared infrastructure, and contract workforce overlap created exposure pathways that extended well beyond direct product handling. Workers who transferred among Bethlehem Steel Burns Harbor, U.S. Steel Gary Works, and Inland Steel East Chicago may have encountered asbestos-containing materials at multiple Northwest Indiana sites over the course of a single career.

Indiana — Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Indiana law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Ind. Code § 34-23-1-1). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.

The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.

Practical first steps

  1. Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
  4. Speak with an asbestos attorney with Indiana experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.

Asbestos-Related Diseases — Indiana

Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.

Mesothelioma

A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.

Asbestosis

A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.

Lung Cancer

Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.

Other Recognized Diseases

Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.

If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.

Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers

Workers who moved between these facilities, as was common in the union trades, carried exposure histories that span the entire Northwest Indiana steel corridor. This regional exposure pattern creates specific Lake County and Porter County asbestos lawsuit opportunities, because workers often transitioned among multiple employers within a compact geographic area, accumulating exposure across multiple occupational settings.

Data Sources — Indiana

Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:

If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.