SEATTLE – On the other side of the world, discarded United States electronics fill foreign slums with toxic metals that are hand-removed by unprotected workers.

Back in the United States, a 4-year-old Minnesota child swallows a piece of jewelry and dies of lead poisoning.

These two tragedies happened on opposite sides of the Earth, but according to one local group, they're linked tightly together.

"Essentially the Chinese are returning the toxic waste we are sending to them," said Sarah Westervelt, of the Basel Action Network.

The agency is the same Seattle group that trailed discarded United States computers and other electronics to slums in Ethiopia and China.

They have now asked a well-known chemist to see if toxic, imported jewelry could be made of metals removed from our own electronic waste.

"And he indeed found that it's highly likely. He found a chemical marker that's in that lead that's completely lined with the lead used in circuit boards," Westervelt said.

This week, The Wall Street Journal featured Chinese companies that admit to selling lead from American electronic waste to toy and jewelry manufacturers.

Local Health officials say they've been fighting this imported lead jewelry problem for years.

"There's no level of lead that a child can ingest that will not harm them. And it can go all the way to killing them," said Lee Dorigan, of Seattle/ King County Health.

Experts say there is no way to determine if a toy is filled with lead without a test, but they suggest if it's cheap and heavier than similar items, it's probably lead.

With all of the security concerns surrounding American ports it's unlikely much time will be spent looking for pieces of lead-contaminated jewelry.