Two of the largest U.S. toy companies, Toys “R” Us Inc. and Mattel Inc., said they will phase out nickel-cadmium batteries, a technology associated with widespread environmental contamination and health problems in China, the Wall Street Journal rerpots.

The move comes as toy makers are scrambling to rid their products of toxins, after a wave of recalls last year triggered panic about the safety of Chinese-made toys. The bans on cadmium batteries are a sign that the toy industry’s safety concerns are beginning to extend to workers and citizens in China, where the vast majority of the world’s toys are made.

Cadmium batteries, which are commonly found in remote control toys, pose no health risks to American children. But the batteries have been a target of environmentalists and workers rights groups, because they contain cadmium, a toxic heavy metal that can cause kidney failure, lung cancer and bone disease.

Hundreds of factory workers in China have been exposed to unsafe levels of cadmium, and runoff from China’s cadmium battery factories has polluted the soil and water. The health and environmental consequences of nickel-cadmium batteries were the subject of a page-one story in The Wall Street Journal last month.

The Toys “R” Us announcement is part of a wave of new safety initiatives the company is taking as it aims to reassure parents about the safety of its products. In addition to the battery phase-out, the company announced stricter rules on lead content in toy surface coatings and tighter rules on phthalates, a vinyl additive that has been linked to cancer in rats.

U.S. toymakers and retailers are racing to get ahead of proposed legislation that could tighten toy-industry regulation after last year’s recalls. The legislation includes a potential overhaul of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that would strengthen its enforcement authority.

Read the full Wall Street Journal story

.(subscription required)