A mercury spill that temporarily shut down two post offices in northern Michigan also affected the Detroit Network Distribution Center in Allen Park.
As reported in The Morning Sun, five postal workers and two convenience store employees were assessed for contamination on the morning of May 15 after a substance believed to be mercury oozed from a package at the Lake post office in Garfield Township.
Emergency responders were sent to the location after postal employees recorded a spill of an unknown substance. They had been sorting mail in the rear of the building, loading the mail into wheeled carts for distribution, when they discovered a substance that appeared to be mercury spilling from one of the packages.
The substance reportedly spilled onto the ground in the post office and in the loading area.
Post offices in nearby Lake George and Farwell also were temporarily closed while the spill was being investigated.
The Clare County Emergency Management Office released a statement that decontamination of the mail was later isolated to just the post office in Lake. No injuries were reported, but at least two postal employees were medically checked due to reported rashes that developed after the leak was detected.