A recent WSJ article (subscription required) has announced that Toys ‘R’ Us and Mattel Phase Out Cadmium Batteries , and what is interesting is that unlike the stories this summer that linked toys to hazardous materials, it appears that the phase out is coming as a result of the effect handling cadmium is having on workers in China:

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 the industry’s safety concerns are beginning to extend to workers in China, where the vast majority of the world’s toys are made.

Cadmium batteries, commonly found in remote-control toys, pose no health risks to children who play with the toys. 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 article in The Wall Street Journal last month.

Now, before I get up an applaud their efforts… I must say I am a bit taken back by the fact that there is no announcement on either the Mattel or Toys R US site, and I would encourage one of their PR firms to act now because this is an opportunity to promote a CSR activity in a truly positive way! That aside, this is a great move on the part of both groups and I hope others will follow. there are a lot of new battery technologies coming to the market these days, and I only hope that these batteries will be replaced with others that have a longer life and use less chemicals.