Whitehall Township Mayor Edward D. Hozza Jr. confirmed on Monday the police department has begun an internal investigation into the release of a workers' compensation form filed by a police officer.

The report relates to the officer being exposed to asbestos while responding to a fire alarm at the municipal building March 14.

On that day, Hozza said he was attempting to remove old wax from the basement floor of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). He said he was using a sander connected to a sealed fireplace vacuum and did not realize that one of the three snaps on the vacuum lid had not been closed properly.

As a result, pellet stove ash and wax dust were released into the air, triggering the fire alarm.

A Whitehall Township police officer responded to the alarm. The following week, the officer filed workers' compensation paperwork reporting the incident and submitted copies to the police chief, the Human Resources director, Hozza and his deputy mayor, Hozza said.

Last week, a local daily newspaper reported on the March 14 incident and the workers' compensation form. The article sparked an investigation into how that newspaper's reporter received the paperwork, which is considered confidential.

According to that news article, township Commissioner Gerard Palagonia and board President Linda Snyder directly confronted Hozza about the issue, calling the mayor's actions reckless and showing a disregard for the health of employees.

The initial investigation findings released by Hozza state, "Commissioner Gerard Palagonia called the Whitehall Police Department on Monday, March 30, 2015, and inquired of a member of the senior command staff that there may have been an incident with the mayor sanding the wax floors in the bomb shelter on March 14, 2015."

Palagonia initially requested a copy of the report, Hozza said. The member of the command staff thought since [Palagonia] was an elected official, it would be acceptable to release the report Palagonia asked for, the investigation found.

The member of the command staff claims to have inadvertently sent the Confidential Officer Injury Report, which is part of the Workers' Compensation Form, instead of the Fire Alarm/Police Incident Report.

Hozza's report on the incident does not name any other individual to whom the workers' compensation documents were released.

Hozza said the command center member violated several police department standing general orders, including, but not limited to, sections of breach of discipline.

One order possibly violated reads, "Members shall treat departmental business, communications, records and data confidential. This information shall not be used by any member or released to any person or organization for private or personal gain."

Air-quality tests are being done in the EOC, Hozza said.

He said the floor tile was tested by an environmental agency and is similar to the hundreds of thousands of homes, churches, stores and government buildings built from the 1940s to the 1970s that still use and contain trace amounts of asbestos.

According to WebMD.com, asbestos is "a fabric found in older ceiling and floor tiles, car brake shoes and clutch pads, paints, coatings and plastics. It is dangerous when inhaled.

"It is highly advisable when working with asbestos that one should not use power tools, abrasive cutting or sanding discs and high-pressure hoses."

At Monday's meeting, Snyder asked Hozza whether laboratory testing of the asbestos in the EOC was completed.

Hozza said it was not.

"Moving forward, we will have another air-quality test done on the EOC. Until the results are back, no employees will access the EOC," Hozza said.

Palagonia, who is running against Hozza in the township's mayoral race, offered no comments at the meeting.