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The US Steel Industry has been a major part of many American city’s history and economic growth. Steel mills were and still continue to be a huge part of the identities of cities like Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland, OH, Buffalo, NY and more. However, the large presence of the steel industry comes with a cost of harm to the human and environmental health of the surrounding communities of these steel mills. Steel mills release air pollutants that contribute to the increase in greenhouse gases, causing climate change to occur rapidly as well as harm the health of frontline community members. The health risks from exposure to steel production include but are not limited to an increase in cancer rates, asthma rates, lung disease, and heart disease.
At the end of the 20th century, there was a major decline in the reliance on and the efficiency of the steel industry in the country. In the early 2000s the US became a large importer of steel, moving away from the manufacturing process. In 2025, Japan’s largest steel manufacturer, Nippon Steel, acquired the US’ largest steel manufacturer, US Steel, for $14.9 million (IMAA, 2025). This marks a reinvestment into the steel industry in the US, with plans to keep the company in the country, keep the headquarters in Pittsburgh, and at least a $4 billion investment in new steel mills (IMAA, 2025).
The story that I want to tell is that the steel industry in the US is extremely damaging to the health and wellbeing of the communities surrounding the steel mills. I want to show that this reinvestment will cause more harm than good due to the damage to the health of the people and their environment.
I hope to inform residents of the surrounding cities of steel manufacturing of the harms of the steel industry, so that they feel empowered to urge their local government officials to impose standards and regulations to protect the health of their residents.
I planned to focus on cancer rates and asthma rates in US counties and cities that are home to steel manufacturing facilities. I had trouble finding county based data, so I will be using the following datasets organized by state and metropolitan statistical areas (MSA). I will use both the cancer rate data and asthma rate data to show the comparison of MSA’s with steel mills and those without. I anticipate that cancer and asthma rates will be higher in MSA’s with steel mills than in those without.
I also plan on using the Allegheny County Violations data to show the amount of violations from US Steel per year in the last five years (measured in US Dollars) to show the frequent risks that frontline communities face because of the noncompliance of facilities like Clairon Coke Works and Edgar Thompson Steel Works.
| Name | URL | Description |
|---|---|---|
| US Cancer Incidences | https://wonder.cdc.gov/cancer-v2022.html | Cancer Rates by MSA from 2018 - 2022 |
| Current Asthma by State, 2023 | Asthma by State | Asthma Rates by State |
| Asthma Capitals | Asthma Capitals | Asthma rates and how they rate by MSAs |
| Encforcment Actions | Enforcement Actions | Allegheny County Violations against US Steel |
I plan to create most of my data visualization using Tableau and if needed, Datawrapper. For my full story map, I plan to use Shorthand.
IMAA. (2025, June 25). Nippon Steel Acquires US Steel in $15B Deal | What It Means. IMAA – Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances. https://imaa-institute.org/blog/nippon-steels-acquisition-of-us-steel/
I used AI to look up sources for the Nippon Steel US Steel deal.