The asbestos records at the University of Michigan have been seized by the state.
The university is under pressure to release them as soon as possible.
The documents include more than 60 years of work on the building that was destroyed in a fire in 1979.
The state’s Department of Labor says the documents contain thousands of pages of work histories, and that’s why they have been sought.
But the state says they belong to a group of buildings owned by the University.
So how did the documents get into the hands of the state?
The records were discovered in an envelope addressed to a former employee.
In it was a request for asbestos records from the University’s asbestos records unit.
That employee was a former construction worker named Bill Burt who had worked on the construction site in the 1980s.
His work included cleaning up asbestos, and he kept a scrapbook of what he had found.
But when the state contacted him to ask for the asbestos records, he says, the agency threatened to call the police and the police would contact him.
He eventually said he wouldn’t tell anyone about the documents, but that he had no choice because he had worked for the university for 10 years.
“I knew that the university would be able to use the information to threaten the employee who had provided me with the records,” he said.
But he was not prepared for what happened next.
The State Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for the records, was notified by a law enforcement officer that the information had been seized.
It called in the Michigan State Police, who responded with an affidavit from a Michigan State University police officer that said that the documents were “owned and held by a University employee, and the records contain information on the activities of the University in the late 1980s.”
What’s more, the affidavit says, it was the university that was responsible for paying for the employee’s transportation, and it was “responsible for all costs associated with its acquisition and preservation of the asbestos materials.”
“I had no idea what the university had done to the asbestos,” Burt said.
“When I saw the documents and I read the names and addresses, it just became so shocking.”
The documents had been obtained through a state-ordered search.
That search found several boxes of documents, including a letter that had been sent to Burt by the university, in which he wrote that he was “very concerned” about the materials being brought into Michigan.
He wrote that the materials had been used for building materials, and were “extremely hazardous.”
In response, the university sent the letter to Buss to request an interview.
But in the letter, the letter was addressed to an unidentified person and not to Buret, who was never contacted.
The next day, the state called to say the information belonged to him, and requested the documents.
“We had to fight this tooth and nail,” Buss said.
The records had been transferred to the state’s asbestos registry, and by that time, Burt had lost his job.
The University of New Mexico has also lost its asbestos records.
The city of Albuquerque, which owns the building where the building was destroyed, had to buy the records.
Burt was not informed that he would be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the state, and, as a result, he has no idea whether the documents will be released.
Burets attorney says he has a hard time understanding why the state would try to take these documents and destroy them, even though they belong in the public domain.
“The records are not in the university’s possession.
That’s why the university did not want them.
The school has a fiduciary responsibility for its employees and their health,” said attorney James S. Sorensen.
The asbestos registry has taken steps to protect the university from further abuse of the information.
In June, the registry approved a request by the Michigan Department of Health to retain the asbestos record for at least five years.
But that means that, until it is destroyed, the records will not be available to the public.
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