Dr. Janet Seabrook, Gary’s health commissioner, believes it’s important for the city to prioritize its residents’ health, she said at a steel pollution study announcement Wednesday.
“I think it’s important that we have clean air,” Seabrook said. “Many of our patients suffer from pulmonary disease, and our children struggle with asthma.”
Members of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development met Wednesday to present the group’s latest study, “Adverse Health Effects from Indiana’s Integrated Primary Steel Mills,” which was created by two members, Susan Thomas and Dr. Allan Halline, a retired gastroenterologist.
The study focuses on what pollutants Northwest Indiana’s steel mills release, the health costs, and the impact on the community.
“Our purpose is to raise awareness of the health effects,” Halline said Wednesday. “Health effects for industrial pollution are far too common, and extend beyond the lungs. Effects are now recognized from almost every organ in the body.”
U.S. Steel responded to GARD’s study in an email statement Wednesday.
“U.S. Steel has robust systems and equipment in place (to) control the emissions involved in the steelmaking process and adhere to all environmental regulations,” the statement said. “At Gary Works, our processes and environmental control equipment and systems are monitored extensively by our environmental teams. Third parties are used for sampling water discharges and for opacity observations to ensure compliance with air and water regulations.
“Gary Works has achieved an environmental compliance rate exceeding 99%. Gary Works also produces Pig Iron, an important feedstock for U.S. Steel’s electric arc furnaces. Our more than 3,400 Gary Works employees put safety and environmental compliance first. We are proud of their work and the Northwest Indiana community we call home.”
Cleveland-Cliffs was unable to immediately respond to a request for comment.
In GARD’s study, Halline and Thomas cited nearly 20 pollution, steel and environmental reports, including from Industrious Labs and the Environmental Integrity Project. The study claims that cancer rates are 12% higher in residents who live near steel plants and 26% higher in those living near coke plants, both compared to the national average.
Halline said Wednesday that Northwest Indiana’s three steel mills release more than 6,000 tons of fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, and they release a combined 480 tons of various air toxics.
“Many harmful effects of pollution take years to develop,” Halline said. “Unlike asthma, where coughing and wheezing show up quickly, such is not the case with many other diseases, such as the development of cancer, for example.”
Fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less is linked to cancers in the brain, thyroid, breast, lung, colon, rectum, prostate, kidney, bladder, uterus and ovaries, Halline said, and it could also lead to leukemia.
Halline also found that air pollution can lead to cognitive decline, immune disease, decreased fertility and increased risk for congenital heart defects in infants, among other issues.
“Recent studies suggest that the harmful effects of pollution continue to occur, even at levels currently deemed to be safe by the (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency),” Halline said. “These acceptable levels really are not established to be safe for people with preexisting illnesses or less social support, a situation that certainly applies to marginalized communities.”
Halline and GARD member Kwabena Rasuli said Wednesday that they support the use of direct reduction furnaces rather than blast furnaces.
“Today, the steel mills in Northwest Indiana are the country’s leading producers of high-value, flat-roll steel products,” Rasuli said. “If our region’s mills fail to modernize their ironmaking technology, an increasing percentage of the country’s iron will be produced elsewhere, and then the high-value, flat-roll steel products of Northwest Indiana will also be produced elsewhere.”
According to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, direct reduction creates sponge iron, which “is produced in a reactor by direct reduction of iron ore in solid form, utilizing natural gas as the reducing agent to produce pellets or briquettes.” Direct reduction cannot create steel.
Direct reduced iron, or sponge iron, is consumed by electric arc furnaces rather than blast furnaces, and instead uses pig iron, which is created at Gary Works. According to U.S. Steel’s website, the company has electric arc furnaces at two facilities, one in Alabama and another in Arkansas.
In September, U.S. Steel announced that its board approved the next phase of the company’s capital investment plan, including a $200 million investment into the Gary Works’ hot strip mill, which is part of Japanese-based Nippon Steel’s $11 billion investment.
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According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Nippon plans to invest $3.1 billion in the Gary Works facility from 2025 to 2028. In 2025, Nippon plans to invest $400 million, followed by $900 million in 2026, $800 million in 2027 and $1.1 billion in 2028.
In late 2024, a Nippon executive said the facility would receive about $1 billion, some of which would be dedicated to relining Gary Works’ blast furnace. GARD and other environmental groups have opposed the blast furnace relining since it was announced it’d be done through the deal.
Carolyn McCrady, GARD member, previously told the Post-Tribune that Gary Mayor Eddie Melton has been receptive to the organization’s concerns with blast furnaces and the desire for green steelmaking. Melton arranged a meeting between the group and Nippon to talk about the future of steelmaking, McCrady previously said.
Halline said Wednesday that GARD is interested in meeting with U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs to discuss their concerns, especially because the information in the group’s study is publicly available.
“Proving that one person who has this cancer was caused by this industry is impossible,” Halline said. “Particulate matter comes from the steel mills, and it came from wildfires in Canada … and heavy traffic and heavy locomotives … But those fires and that traffic is not something we can control. (Changes to the steel mill) is something we can control.”