Pipe made in McKeesport. For roughly a century, the National Tube Works turned out steel pipe and tube along the Monongahela River. It employed generations of local families and gave the city its nickname, Tube City. Under U.S. Steel, the National Works stayed one of the country’s leading pipe producers until operations wound down in the 1980s. Those decades fall squarely within the industrial asbestos era. Today, former tube mill workers and their families are among the Pennsylvania residents pursuing mesothelioma claims.
How Pipe Was Made at the National Tube Works in McKeesport
Making pipe is hot, heavy work. Steel was heated, then pierced and rolled into a seamless tube or formed and welded. After that, it was finished, threaded, and tested. The National Works did all of this on an enormous scale, with furnaces and reheating equipment, steam-driven machinery, and a powerhouse and boiler plant that kept everything running. As in nearly every mill of its era, the materials used to manage that heat are what brought asbestos into the buildings.
Asbestos-Containing Equipment in McKeesport’s Steel Pipe Mills
The National Cancer Institute reports that asbestos was widely used for much of the twentieth century to insulate boilers, steam lines, furnaces, and similar high-heat equipment (NCI asbestos fact sheet). In a tube works, that likely meant:
- insulated steam piping throughout the plant
- heat-resistant linings and patching on furnaces
- gaskets and packing in valves and pumps
- protective cloth gear in hot areas
Maintenance work was a major source of exposure. Stripping old pipe covering, relining furnaces, rebuilding pumps, and sweeping up afterward could all release fibers into the air that everyone shared.
McKeesport Jobs With a Higher Risk of Asbestos Exposure
- Furnace and heating crews in the pipe mills
- Rolling, piercing, and welding mill hands working near insulated machinery
- Pipefitters, millwrights, and boiler house operators
- Bricklayers and laborers on reline and tear-out jobs
- Finishing, threading, and shipping crews sharing mill air
Secondhand Asbestos Exposure in Mon Valley Mill Families
Exposure did not always stay at the plant. The NCI notes that asbestos fibers could travel home on work clothes. In McKeesport mill households, someone handled that laundry for decades.
Proving a National Tube Works Employment History
Documenting a Tube City career is often more manageable than families expect. Several kinds of records can help:
- Detailed Social Security earnings records can show employers by year.
- Steelworkers’ union records may confirm membership and work history.
- U.S. Steel pension and benefit files may place a worker at a specific plant, and sometimes in a specific department.
- Prior asbestos litigation involving Mon Valley mills may have produced testimony about the products and practices used there, so a new case may not have to start from scratch.
Duquesne Works, Clairton Coke Works, and Multi-Plant Mon Valley Careers
The National Works sat across the Monongahela from the Duquesne Works. McKeesport workers also appear in histories from the Clairton Coke Works, a short distance upriver. Careers that moved between plants were common in the valley. Each site named in a work history can add product manufacturers and trust claims to a case. The Pennsylvania asbestos exposure sites index provides a full valley map.
Is It Too Late to File a McKeesport Mesothelioma Claim?
Mesothelioma can take decades to develop after exposure. As a result, people who worked during the plant’s final years are still being diagnosed today. Pennsylvania sets deadlines for asbestos claims, and those deadlines are generally tied to when the illness is discovered. Families should speak with an attorney promptly after a diagnosis.
The employer’s fate usually does not end the case. Claims typically target the companies that made and supplied the asbestos products used in the works, not the mill itself.
Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Funds for Former Steel Mill Workers
Many asbestos product makers reorganized through bankruptcy and set up trusts to pay injury claims. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has reported that these trusts hold tens of billions of dollars (GAO-11-819). Tube works careers often spanned many years and many suppliers, so they may support claims against more than one trust.
How a McKeesport Mesothelioma Lawyer Builds Your Family’s Case
A McKeesport case starts with what the family remembers: the mill, the department, the approximate years, and the kind of work. Families do not need to know product names. Identifying the insulation and gasket brands used at the National Works is the lawyer’s job and relies on records built over years of Mon Valley litigation.
Michael C. Schafle, Esq., counsel in the Philadelphia asbestos docket, helps families across Pennsylvania build these work histories. The McKeesport mesothelioma lawyer page explains the process in Allegheny County. A free case review is the first step.