Central Michigan University Students Exposed to Asbestos

December 4, 2006 - Student maintenance workers at Central Michigan University claim they’ve been made to remove asbestos-containing tiles during their work at several buildings on the Mount Pleasant campus.

According to an article in Central Michigan Life, the college’s newspaper, a number of students who hold work-study jobs as building maintenance workers (BMW) are concerned about the health effects of being exposed to asbestos during the various tasks performed at old campus buildings that still contain the hazardous material.

Chris Schafer, a junior, is one of several who are afraid they’ve risked their health to remove floor and ceiling tiles that contain asbestos.  “The way you fix a tile is pound it apart, and when you’re pounding away at the tile, you’re putting that stuff in the air — and chances are you’re breathing it in,” Schafer said.

“Then they had to have a Hazardous Material crew wear suits and tape off the whole area and rip out the asbestos-containing material,” he said. “We found out after the effect. I was pretty pissed, not going to lie. The thing is, they know they do that and they still have people go in and fix the tiles.”

Schafer says he spoke to CMU’s Workman’s Compensation agency, which handles work-related injury protection, but he never got a response.

Even brief exposure to asbestos has been known to cause asbestos-related diseases like asbestosis and mesothelioma, a cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs.  The diseases often do not surface for up to 40 years. 

Still, others remain unconcerned, reports the newspaper. “It doesn’t matter to me if I have to remove asbestos tile,” said senior Scott Huntoon. “We are told we cannot remove these tiles. There is a group on campus trained to remove these tiles, but I don’t like waiting for a qualified person to remove one or two tiles from a room ... a few tiles won’t kill me.”

The university’s Facilities Management office says that asbestos removal has been ongoing in order to support renovation projects.  It denies that any students were made to handle asbestos. 

If asbestos is found, a Facilities Management work order is created and the asbestos removal work is completed by a licensed and state-approved contractor, Steve Lawrence, vice president of Facilities Management explained. “Utilizing BMW students to complete such work would not be an approved Facilities Management method.”