In March, China reported having a run on salt due to fear of radiation from Japan's melting nuclear reactors.

In May, they had exploding watermelons.

With all these showier, more exciting ways to be poisoned, you might have forgotten about an old favorite - lead.

Chinese authorities are blocking access to tests and treatment for children at risk of lead poisoning, according to a damning report issued on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch.

The US-based group said some local government officials affected by the widening pollution scandal are also withholding and falsifying test results to reduce health costs and main the economic vitality of factories.

Since 2008, China has been wracked by more than a dozen lead poisoning incidents, affecting thousands of people and often prompting violent attacks against the smelting plants and battery factories that are responsible for the contamination.

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In many cases, local people have long complained of health problems and unusual behaviour by their children, but the authorities have ignored them because the factories are an important source of jobs, taxes and - sometimes - bribes.
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"Children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood are being refused treatment and returned home to contaminated houses in polluted villages," said Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch.
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"The doctor told us all the children in this village have lead poisoning. Then they told us a few months later that all the children are healthy. They wouldn't let us see the results from the tests though," the group quotes a mother from Yunnan as saying.

Another parent told the group: "The government doesn't want to have to give us anything so they make up the results."

Not to worry, though. There's an easy peasy way to cure lead poisoning.

Currently, some parents have been told that drinking milk or eating garlic and eggs is an effective way to counter lead poisoning, the group said.

Just make sure you check that milk for melamine first...