Despite efforts to decrease lead in children's toys and jewelry, "recent surveys by health officials and children's advocates in Massachusetts, Maryland and Ohio, [...] found lead contamination in children's jewelry as often as 40 percent of the time" according to a New York Times article.

A nationwide government survey found an overall one in five occurrence of dangerous lead levels in children's jewelry.

Culprits include those egg packaged trinkets in vending machines from places like Wal-Mart, k mart, Toys R Us. Also included are bonus trinkets from marketing incentive programs.

Basically - anything small, obviously cheap, and just the right size for a kid to swallow.

And last year, Jarnell Brown, a 4-year-old in Minneapolis, swallowed a heart-shaped charm that had been given away by Reebok International as a sales incentive on its children's footwear. Jarnell died after suffering vomiting, seizures and respiratory arrest. During the autopsy, a charm imprinted with the Reebok logo was removed from his stomach.

By the way, those are classic symptoms of lead poisoning. Why is this happening? Well, apparently current laws only allow for recalls, and don't give officials the ability to charge fines or otherwise discourage repeat offenders. Additionally, importers and manufacturers aren't exactly being very diligent.