They live in the shadow of the construction site where workers fell ill

SSAB’s blast furnace towers over the elementary school. Retired doctor Kerstin Rönnblom is heading in that direction with her dog. Sometimes dust from the operations falls over the area, and then the residents can get a ticket that gives them a voucher for a free wash at a gas station.

For 40 years I cycled to the health centre at Örnnäset. In the early 1980s and 1990s you could really feel the emissions. It smelled of sulphur dioxide.

As a young doctor, she conducted a study that showed a deterioration in lung function among patients on days when emissions were higher. The asthma patients closed their windows and stayed inside on those days.

“It has improved tremendously now,” she says.

Clothes turned black

Several people who have lived in Svartöstaden for a long time have testified to how their fingers could turn black when they were dragged across the windowsill. The culprits were large piles of ore that were previously stored outside the district, but have now moved further into the industrial area.

A woman walking her Labrador says:

I bought pink overalls for my two daughters. In the fall and spring when they were out climbing trees – God in heaven they looked like chimney sweeps. There was no point in washing them, they were like oil.

But now it’s gone, it’s great now. We love Svartöstaden, we who chose to live here.

On SSAB’s site, a bit behind the blast furnace, an electric arc furnace is planned to replace the blast furnace and coke oven. Construction has been at a standstill for three weeks after at least 20 workers fell ill and three office workers in the area developed symptoms.

Mimmi Lindfors Åknert is out walking with her 1.5-year-old son Gunnar. She hopes the SSAB case doesn’t develop into an “Erin Brockovich” situation, referring to the legal clerk who prosecuted an American environmental case against a company.

But neither she nor the residents she has spoken to are particularly worried.

Concerns about delays

At the same time, the cases of illness feel strange, and having a small child has made her reflect.

I hadn’t thought it was unhealthy to live near an industry, but if it turns out there’s even the slightest risk to him, I would speed up a move, she says.

The concern among residents is rather about how the problems could slow down the project.

They have to find out what it was. I think everyone here in Svartöstan is positive about fossil-free steel; they want SSAB to continue, says Kerstin Rönnblom.

The steel group SSAB, in which the Swedish state is the largest owner through the mining giant LKAB, is building a new steel mill in Luleå.

In September 2025, the ground was broken for a new steel mill on Svartön in Luleå, which will replace the company’s existing blast furnace and coking plant.

The technology is based on electric arc furnaces where the raw material is scrap steel and sponge iron (which is essentially refined iron ore pellets where the oxygen has been removed with hydrogen gas).

This allows steel to be produced without coal. When the transition is complete, it is estimated to reduce Sweden’s total emissions by 7 percent.

Since April 3, work on SSAB’s new steel mill on Svartön in Luleå has been at a standstill, after several people fell ill at the construction site where excavation is being carried out in preparation for piling.

The first case occurred on January 26. In total, about 20 subcontractor employees are involved, seven of whom have sought medical attention. Another worker is suspected of having been exposed earlier, which was reported last summer.

On April 20, three office employees working in temporary premises at the construction site showed symptoms.

Seko has placed a formal safety stop at the workplace.

Source: SSAB