Asbestos found in Pittsburgh, PA buildings | Mistick Construction Company

A Cloud of Dust and Deceit in Pittsburgh

Imagine the excitement of a neighborhood undergoing revitalization. For residents of 49 properties in Pittsburgh’s North Side, the sounds of construction promised new beginnings. But behind the scenes of this multi-phase renovation project, a toxic threat was silently being disturbed. The developer, a collective including Mistick Construction Company, proceeded to tear into walls and rip out materials without first checking for asbestos—a known human carcinogen that can cause fatal lung diseases years after exposure. This was a fundamental betrayal of the health and safety of workers on site and the families who would one day call these houses home.

The story began with a citizen complaint on May 16, 2019, from someone who suspected something was dangerously wrong. They were right.

The Corporate Playbook: How the Harm Was Done

The actions of Mistick Construction and its associated companies follow a familiar script of prioritizing speed and profit over human well-being. The company engaged in a massive renovation project across 49 separate properties without conducting a single asbestos survey beforehand. This is a direct violation of federal and local laws designed specifically to prevent the uncontrolled release of asbestos fibers, which can lodge in the lungs and cause incurable diseases like mesothelioma and asbestosis.

This wasn’t the company’s first offense. In 2016, Mistick had already been cited for unlawful asbestos abatement in another Pittsburgh neighborhood, establishing a clear pattern of disregarding public safety regulations. After being caught in 2019, the company was hit with a “Stop Work Order”. Subsequent investigations confirmed the public’s fears: renovation dust and debris in at least six of the 49 homes tested positive for asbestos, turning these future homes into potential toxic exposure sites.

A Cascade of Consequences: The Real-World Impact

The decision to skip mandatory safety checks unleashed a domino effect of harm, jeopardizing public health, betraying community trust, and exposing a regulatory system ill-equipped to deliver true justice.

Public Health & Safety: A Legacy of Risk

For the six homes where asbestos was found, the danger is profound and long-lasting. The company’s work created an environment where anyone could have been exposed. They failed to:

• Post warning signs to alert people to the asbestos hazard.
• Use negative air pressure machines to contain asbestos fibers within the work area, allowing them to potentially spread.
• Properly seal off work areas with plastic sheeting, a basic containment measure.
• Wet down asbestos materials during removal to prevent dust from becoming airborne.
• Legally dispose of the toxic waste, failing to ensure it was taken to an authorized landfill in sealed containers.

Each of these failures increased the risk that microscopic, needle-like asbestos fibers could have been inhaled by workers or settled in the surrounding environment, waiting to be disturbed again. The absence of asbestos in the other 43 properties at the time of inspection doesn’t mean it was never there; the renovations may have already disturbed and dispersed it.

Economic Fallout: The Price of Poison

While the human cost is immeasurable, the financial penalties illustrate a disturbing economic injustice. The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) initially calculated a potential civil penalty of $4,212,000.00. However, the final assessed penalty was a drastically reduced $754,600.00.

Analysis: A System Designed for This

This case is a predictable outcome of a neoliberal capitalist system that relentlessly prioritizes profit maximization. For decades, corporate interests have lobbied for deregulation and weaker enforcement, framing essential public health protections as “red tape” that stifles economic growth. In this environment, companies like Mistick Construction are not rogue actors but rational players responding to the incentives laid out before them.

When the penalty for endangering public health is a manageable business expense rather than a crippling punishment, the choice to cut corners on safety becomes an economically sound decision.

The system treats the potential for causing fatal lung disease as a risk that can be priced and managed. The company’s “full cooperation” after being caught is not a sign of remorse but a strategic move to mitigate financial liability—a standard part of the corporate crisis management playbook. This incident is a blatant illustration of how late-stage capitalism privatizes profits while socializing health risks, leaving communities to bear the long-term consequences.

Dodging Accountability: How the Powerful Evade Justice

The legal outcome of this case is a masterclass in how corporations sidestep true accountability. Despite a documented history of violations and a series of flagrant breaches of safety laws across dozens of sites, no individual executive was held personally responsible. The penalty was assessed against the corporate entities, “jointly and severally”. This allows the individuals who made the decisions to hide behind the corporate veil.

The drastic reduction of the penalty from a potential $4.2 million to just over $750,000 sends a clear message to the industry: even serious, repeated violations will not result in existentially threatening consequences.

This fine, for a company involved in a 49-property renovation project, is unlikely to compel a fundamental change in behavior. It reinforces the cynical calculus that it is often cheaper to violate the law and pay the fine than to comply with it from the outset.

Reclaiming Power: Pathways to Real Change

Preventing future tragedies requires more than just penalizing one company after the fact. It demands systemic reform aimed at shifting power away from corporations and toward communities. True change could include:

• Crippling Financial Penalties: Fines must be pegged to a company’s revenue and the project’s profit, ensuring they are always more costly than compliance.
• Executive Accountability: Laws must be strengthened to allow for the prosecution of individual executives who oversee or approve of such violations. The corporate shield must be pierced.
• Empowering Local Agencies: Public health departments like the ACHD need more funding and stronger enforcement powers to act proactively, not just reactively to citizen complaints.
• Community Oversight Boards: Residents should have a direct role in overseeing large-scale development projects, with the power to halt work when safety concerns arise.

Conclusion: A Story of a System, Not an Exception

The case of Mistick Construction and the 49 North Side properties is more than a local news story about a construction company that broke the rules. It is a window into the logical endpoint of an economic system that has elevated profit to a sacred status. The disturbed asbestos in Pittsburgh is a symptom of the deep-seated disease of late-stage capitalism, where the well-being of people and the environment is consistently sacrificed at the altar of the bottom line. This here documents the success of a system designed to produce such outcomes.

All factual claims in this article were derived from the Enforcement Order issued by the Allegheny County Health Department on December 19, 2022, In the Matter of: The NorthSide Properties Residences II., LLC, et al.

This man right here is Bud Wilson. He was in charge of the construction of the commercial properties at Mistick when all this was going down.

He has a LinkedIn page.