Chicago Heights Steel is a 90 year old specialty steel producer in Chicago. The company is currently the country's only producer of hot-rolled rail steel, derived from steel rails taken out of use by the railways. The steel rails are cleaned, tempered and rolled to produce a lightweight, high tensile strength form of steel that is ideal for outdoor uses like signposts, tee posts and parts for agricultural equipment, garden products and construction products.

Like many other steel fabricators, Chicago Heights Steel used asbestos widely in and around the mill. Asbestos-containing products have superior insulating properties, making asbestos extremely useful around steel mills, fabricating plants and foundries. Workers may have worn asbestos clothing for protection from burns, and floors around boilers and furnaces reinforced with asbestos concrete.

In addition to the protective equipment and materials used in manufacturing, workers at Chicago Heights Steel may also have been exposed to asbestos emanating from the equipment and machinery with which they worked. Asbestos was often used as insulation in factory machinery, turbines and other parts of metal machines that would be operating with a lot of friction or generating a great deal of heat. Please see Occupations at Risk of Asbestos Exposure for further information.

Exposure to asbestos causes many illnesses. The tiny asbestos fibers in the air can be breathed in or swallowed, and remain in the body for decades before the symptoms of mesothelioma or asbestosis become evident. Please see Asbestos for more information about this substance.

Thousands of those who worked in steel mills, foundries and metal works were exposed to asbestos fibers on a daily basis, and later developed mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis. Thousands more have been exposed and live with the fear that it is only a matter of time before they learn that they've been harboring a ticking time bomb in their bodies for decades.

If you or a loved one worked at Chicago Heights Steel in the past and have since become ill with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, you may have legal recourse for compensation. Contact a mesothelioma lawyer to find out about your rights to compensation and damages.

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