The liquid metal apparently leaked sometime Friday from a vial labeled "virgin mercury" that was in the pump house west of town. The leak was reported to I-DEM today.
Carthage Works Manager Larry Back says a town employee was taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution after he came into contact with the mercury.
Back says no one knows why the vial of mercury was in the pump house.
Mercury has been linked with human neurological, reproductive and immune problems.
The town has hired an Indianapolis company to clean up the spill. Carthage is a rural community of about 900 people about 40 miles east of Indianapolis.
