Former Alcoa workers in New Kensington, and family members who breathed the dust they carried home, can still file mesothelioma claims under Pennsylvania law. The plant’s closure did not close the courthouse door. Michael C. Schafle, Esq. is a Philadelphia trial lawyer, counsel in the Philadelphia asbestos docket (In re: Asbestos Litigation, No. 1986-00001), and he represents mesothelioma patients throughout Pennsylvania, including Westmoreland County.
Alcoa and New Kensington grew up together
New Kensington was an aluminum town. Alcoa’s works there was among the company’s earliest, and for decades it was the area’s defining employer, drawing workers from both sides of the Allegheny before operations wound down. Aluminum research and fabrication kept thousands on the payroll through the middle of the century, and the plant’s departments, from smelting-era operations through rolling and finishing, each left their own exposure profile. Our dedicated page on the Alcoa New Kensington plant covers the site’s history and the exposure evidence connected to it; the statewide picture is on our exposure sites index.
Why aluminum production involved asbestos
Smelting and fabricating aluminum meant furnaces, molten metal, and steam, and through most of the twentieth century the insulation standing between workers and that heat was asbestos. It lagged the pipes and lined the furnaces. It filled gaskets, gloves, and heat shields. Maintenance crews who ripped out and replaced worn insulation stirred it into the air, and production workers downwind breathed it. None of it came with a warning at the time. The dust also left the plant on work clothes, which is why some New Kensington claims belong to spouses and children who never worked a shift there.
Who pays on a claim like this
Mesothelioma claims are rarely brought against the employer. They are brought against the companies that manufactured and supplied the asbestos products used in the plant, and many of those companies later created bankruptcy trusts that pay claims outside of court. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported roughly $30 billion set aside in these asbestos trusts (GAO-11-819). One documented work history at the New Kensington plant can support several trust claims and a lawsuit at the same time. Identifying every product in the plant, insulation brands, gasket makers, equipment suppliers, is what turns one employer’s history into a full set of claims.
The deadline, plainly stated
Pennsylvania generally gives a mesothelioma patient two years from diagnosis to file, under the discovery rule in 42 Pa. C.S. § 5524, and gives a family generally two years from a death to bring wrongful death and survival claims. The distinctions matter and are laid out on our Pennsylvania statute of limitations page. Waiting costs evidence: co-workers who can place you in a department are in their seventies and eighties now. And if a diagnosis has already happened, do not assume the time has run; the discovery rule exists precisely because this disease hides for decades.
What this means for your family
Nobody in your family needs to make trips to Philadelphia. The file travels so the family does not have to: work histories are taken by phone, documents move by mail, and any testimony is scheduled around the patient, usually close to home. Where the case is filed is a strategic call made once the facts are documented, since Pennsylvania venue rules ordinarily allow options. Michael Schafle handles mesothelioma cases across the state, and his practice includes two multi-million-dollar mesothelioma settlements resolved in 2023. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Michael Schafle also keeps a site just for New Kensington families, mesotheliomalawyernewkensingtonpa.com, with the local exposure history, the deadlines that apply, and the same free case review.
If Alcoa is on your family’s resume and mesothelioma is now in your family’s chart, begin with a free case review.