Los Angeles ? A second international chain store said it is pulling from shelves jewelry that lab tests show contained high levels of the heavy metal cadmium, and Chinese regulators said they will investigate dangerous levels of the toxin in children’s jewelry being exported to the United States. Also, a U.S. senator called for hearings.

The jewelry and accessories store Claire’s, with nearly 3,000 locations in North America and Europe, on Tuesday joined Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in saying it would stop selling any item cited in an investigation of the presence of cadmium in cheap bracelets and charms.

Charms on a “Best Friends” bracelet sold at Claire’s contained 89 and 91 percent cadmium, according to testing organized by AP, and shed alarming amounts in a procedure that examined how much cadmium children might be exposed to.

“While we have no reason to believe that this product is unsafe, out of an abundance of caution, we are taking this action because we take our responsibility to our customers very seriously,” Claire’s said in a statement. Customers who return the item will be offered store credit.

Meanwhile, an official with China’s product safety agency said it would examine the findings on cadmium contamination.

“We just heard about this, and we will investigate,” Wang Xin, a director general for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said Tuesday at a toy safety conference in Hong Kong.

Wang’s comments were the government’s first and show China’s nervousness about potential troubles in the U.S., the biggest Chinese export market.

Also on Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who sits on the Commerce Committee, urged a hearing on cadmium in imported children’s jewelry.

Lab tests on 103 pieces of low-priced children’s jewelry on sale in the U.S. found 12 items with raised levels of cadmium, which can hinder brain development in young children, according to recent research, and is known to cause cancer.