More safety scares

Neither of these scares are going to be as serious, or gain as much attention, as the melamine scandal, but they're a couple more straws added to the camel's back:

Ginseng jabs kill three in Yunnan

Three people in Yunnan have died after receiving injections of ginseng, a common ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Tainted China water sickens 450

In neighboring Guangxi province, 450 people are sick after flooding caused waste from a local metallurgy company to pollute the water supply of several villages; four of the sick have arsenic poisoning.

Many readers will remember the chemical spill in the Songhua River in late 2005 which grabbed headlines around the world, especially when the polluted water made its way into Russian territory. The government reacted by implementing stricter legislation, but as is often the case, good intentions from the center don't always translate into results in the provinces.

And of course, there was the infamous cardboard steamed bun fiasco, which, unless you're rather cynical or susceptible to conspiracy theories, was actually a hoax but rang so true that it had everyone fooled.

Update

China Daily: Factory boss held over contaminated poultry feed

BBC: China tainted pork makes 70 sick

WSJ: Water-Injected Meat: The Next Chinese Food Scandal?