A factory manager and the owner of a Shanghai-based delivery service were detained by police after packages tainted with a toxic chemical killed one man and sickened nine other people. The incident triggered a nationwide order from central authorities for postal and courier services to strengthen checks on package contents before they accept them. Delivery companies not following the rules would have their license revoked. Liu Xingliang, a resident of Dongying in  Shandong province, suffered methyl fluoroacetate poisoning after he accepted a package containing shoes delivered by Shanghai YTO Express in late November, according to the Shandong Post Bureau. The Bureau said four parcels delivered by the company were contaminated with methyl fluoroacetate, a toxic liquid widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. The chemical leaked out when workers unloaded parcels from a truck on the night of November 28. The toxic package had been sent from a chemical plant in Jingmen, Hubei province, to a pharmaceutical plant in Weifang in Shandong. During transport, the package was damaged, and the leaked chemical poisoned five delivery workers and two recipients in Shandong’s Shouguang and Jiaozhou cities, in addition to the victim in Dongying. Shandong police detained a Vice Director of Jingmen’s Xiongxing Chemical Co on charges of “posing a threat to public safety.” The company has been ordered to suspend operations. “We normally deliver the toxic material ourselves if the amount is over a ton, but this time only a small amount was needed, so Yang called courier firms,” Huang Shenyong, a senior official with the chemical company, told police. Two courier firms in Hubei and Shanghai-based STO Express had refused to deliver the toxic material, but YTO accepted. One of the owners of the YTO franchise in Hubei’s Shayang county that received the tainted parcels is also being held by police and the franchise’s business license has been revoked. YTO’s franchise in Weifang was also ordered to pay a CNY28,000 fine for its delay in reporting the incident.