About Subaru of Indiana
Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. (SIA) operates at 5500 State Road 38 East in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana.
- Reportedly began production in 1989 as a joint venture between Fuji Heavy Industries and Isuzu Motors
- Spans several million square feet of manufacturing, assembly, paint, and utility space
- Has allegedly employed thousands of workers over three decades, including skilled trades members affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 (St. Louis, MO), Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 (St. Louis, MO), and other regional labor organizations
- Initially produced Subaru Legacy vehicles and Isuzu Rodeo/Honda Passport models before transitioning to exclusive Subaru production in the early 2000s
SIA’s production started in 1989, but the facility’s construction and pre-production infrastructure build-out occurred during the late 1980s — when asbestos-containing materials manufactured by , gaskets and packing, and other producers were still being legally installed in industrial settings. That fact surprises many clients. It shouldn’t.
Three additional factors kept asbestos-containing materials in the building long after construction ended:
- Equipment manufactured before federal asbestos restrictions — by , and — was still being sold and installed into the 1990s
- Renovation, maintenance, and equipment repair throughout the 1990s and early 2000s may have disturbed asbestos-containing insulation, gasket materials, and cement compounds already in place
- Tie-in work connecting new systems to existing infrastructure may have exposed workers to asbestos-containing materials embedded in legacy pipe and equipment
General Equipment at Subaru of Indiana
The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.
Documented Asbestos Evidence
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.
No IDEM NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.
Material Categories in Documented Records
The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Subaru of Indiana
Insulators and Insulation Workers
Insulators — many affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 in St. Louis, Missouri — faced the most direct occupational contact with asbestos-containing materials of any trade at industrial facilities. Their work may have included:
- Applying, maintaining, and removing thermal insulation from pipes, boilers, and pressure vessels using asbestos-containing products
- Handling pre-formed asbestos pipe covering, including 85% magnesia/asbestos combinations reportedly manufactured by and
- Working with asbestos block insulation, blankets, and mattresses marketed as calcium silicate pipe insulation and Thermobestos
- Cutting and fitting asbestos cement around fittings and valves
- Removing existing pipe covering and block insulation — work that generates some of the highest airborne asbestos fiber concentrations measured in any occupational setting
Pipefitters and Steamfitters
Pipefitters and steamfitters working through Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 in St. Louis, Missouri, and related organizations may have been exposed when:
- Cutting into asbestos-insulated pipe systems during maintenance or modifications, disturbing products
- Breaking flanged pipe connections and handling asbestos-containing gaskets from gaskets and packing
- Repacking valve stems with asbestos rope packing
- Working alongside insulators applying or stripping asbestos-containing materials
- Servicing high-temperature equipment with legacy asbestos-containing insulation
Pipefitters rank among the highest-risk occupational groups for mesothelioma in American industry — and they have recovered substantial verdicts and settlements to prove it.
Boilermakers
Boilermakers who serviced the facility’s central boiler plant may have encountered:
- Asbestos-containing refractory and boiler cement during repair and maintenance
- Asbestos-containing gaskets and packing from gaskets and packing during equipment service
- Asbestos block insulation and blanket products on boiler shells
- Asbestos rope allegedly used as furnace door gaskets and seals
- Confined space entry into boiler interiors, where disturbed asbestos fiber concentrations from products reportedly manufactured by , and can reach dangerous levels
Electricians
Electricians at the facility may have encountered asbestos-containing materials in:
- Cloth-and-asbestos electrical wire insulation in older wiring installed at original construction or during early renovations
- Arc chutes and electrical panel components manufactured before the late 1970s
- Fire-resistant insulation on high-voltage switchgear containing products and similar manufacturers
Mechanics and Equipment Technicians
Maintenance mechanics and equipment technicians may have been exposed when:
- Servicing equipment fitted with asbestos-containing gaskets and packings from gaskets and packing
- Repairing or adjusting equipment insulated with asbestos-containing products
- Handling automotive components including asbestos-containing brake pads, clutch assemblies, and friction materials
Construction and Renovation Workers
Contractors involved in facility build-out, renovation, or repair work may have been exposed to:
- Spray-applied asbestos fireproofing during structural modifications, potentially including products manufactured by
- Asbestos-containing building materials including Gold Bond drywall joint compound, floor tiles, and roofing materials marketed under brands such as Pabco
- Asbestos-containing materials disturbed during demolition or selective removal projects
General Laborers and Assembly Workers
Direct exposure risk may have been lower for general manufacturing workers, but exposure pathways existed:
- Proximity to skilled trades performing maintenance or renovation with asbestos-containing materials
- Handling of automotive components manufactured with asbestos-containing brake pads, clutch parts, and gasket materials
- Work in areas with limited ventilation or accumulated asbestos dust from nearby disturbance of asbestos-containing materials
Family Members: Secondary Asbestos Exposure
Family members who laundered work clothing brought home from the facility may have faced secondary exposure. Medical and occupational health literature documents this pattern extensively. Workers may have carried asbestos fibers products, materials, and gaskets and packing home on their clothes, hair, and skin. Spouses, children, and other household members then inhaled those fibers in environments where no one expected asbestos to be present. Secondary exposure victims have successfully pursued compensation in Indiana courts.
⚠️ Critical Filing Deadline
Indiana law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease victims 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal injury lawsuit (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4). For wrongful death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Ind. Code § 34-23-1-1). Miss either deadline by a single day and the right to file is permanently gone. No exceptions, no extensions.
About the two deadlines: Indiana keeps the personal-injury clock (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4) and the wrongful-death clock (Ind. Code § 34-23-1-1) on separate tracks. The 2 years personal-injury deadline runs from the date of diagnosis and applies to the diagnosed person's own claim while they are alive. The 2 years wrongful-death deadline runs from the date of death and applies to surviving family members. The two are independent — preserving one does not extend the other, and an asbestos attorney with experience in Indiana can keep both options open as the situation evolves.
The personal-injury clock runs from the date of medical diagnosis — not from the date of asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma can take 20 to 50 years to develop after exposure. Many workers are only now receiving diagnoses from exposures that occurred decades ago.
Treat the 2 years deadline as a hard outer limit, not a planning horizon.
⚠️ Why You Must Act Now
Indiana's filing window may sound like ample time. It is not. Every month that passes after a mesothelioma diagnosis is a month in which your case gets harder to build and your options narrow.
Witnesses Become Harder to Reach
The tradespeople who worked alongside mesothelioma victims at facilities of this era are now in their 70s and 80s. Witnesses from many years ago are harder and harder to contact by the day — coworkers who can testify about which asbestos-containing materials were used, who supplied them, and how the work was done are increasingly difficult to locate. Once first-hand testimony becomes unavailable, that record is gone.
Records Disappear
Employment records, union records, purchasing records, and product invoices that document exactly which asbestos-containing materials were used at this facility are being lost every year. Plants close. Corporate owners change. Storage facilities are cleared. Records that existed five years ago may not exist today.
Mesothelioma Cases Are Complex to Build
Identifying every responsible manufacturer and every jobsite across a tradesperson's career requires intensive investigation by experienced toxic-tort counsel. A case against the manufacturers who supplied asbestos-containing materials to this facility may involve dozens of defendants. That investigation takes time that waiting families do not have.
Asbestos Trust Fund Claims Run on a Separate Track
More than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts exist to compensate victims whose exposures came from manufacturers that have since gone bankrupt — including the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, established after the 1982 Johns-Manville bankruptcy. Each trust has its own claim forms, exposure criteria, documentation requirements, and processing timelines. Pursuing trust-fund compensation in parallel with a lawsuit takes months. The trust-fund process should start now, not after you decide whether to file suit.
What To Do Next
If you or a family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease — and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or worked at neighboring industrial sites in the corridor — the practical next steps are:
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with experience in Indiana. The first conversation is free, confidential, and creates no obligation. An experienced attorney will help you understand which trust-fund claims may apply, which civil claims are viable, and what documentation you should start gathering.
- Gather what you can about your work history. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, names of coworkers, and dates of employment all become important evidence. The WorkChain widget on this page can help you organize and email yourself a copy of your facility list.
- Preserve your medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests all become part of the legal record. Ask your treating physicians for full copies of everything in your chart.
- Identify household members who may also have been exposed. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children who hugged a parent returning from the plant are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when they have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
- Act before the filing deadline runs. Indiana's statute of limitations is a hard outer limit. Even if you are still in the middle of treatment decisions, beginning the legal process early preserves your options.
Get a free case evaluation from an asbestos attorney with experience in Indiana →
Asbestos-Related Diseases
Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.
Mesothelioma
A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.
Asbestosis
A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.
Lung Cancer
Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.
Other Recognized Diseases
Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.
If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
Insulators — many affiliated with Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 in St. Louis, Missouri — faced the most direct occupational contact with asbestos-containing materials of any trade at industrial facilities.
Pipefitters and steamfitters working through Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 in St. Louis, Missouri, and related organizations may have been exposed when serving the facility.
Data Sources
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.