Allergies
Approximately 10-15% of people suffer some degree of Nickel
Allergic Contact Dermatitis (NACD) caused by nickel sensitivity.
Symptoms include a red itchy rash and inflamed skin in and around
the piercing. People are not born with a sensitivity to nickel and
can develop one at any time.
The popular trend of piercing various body parts has triggered
an increase in allergic reactions to nickel.
"In the 1980s, the incidence of allergies to nickel was about 10
percent," Dr. David Cohen of the New York University School of
Medicine told CNN. "By the mid-1990s, that number had increased
almost 40 percent to 14.3 percent."
The problem is so prevalent the European Union has placed a
nickel ban on jewellery sold there. Products intended to come into
direct and prolonged contact with the skin must not release soluble
nickel at a rate in excess of 0.5 microgram/cm²/ week, when
tested in artificial sweat, according to standard EN 1811:1998.
Jewellery
Fashion necklaces, necklace-clips, earrings, bracelets,
watch-straps and rings may contain nickel. Fashion jewellery tends
to be less expensive and often utilises easily cast and inexpensive
metals and alloys that inevitably contain nickel because of the
attributes it manifests.
Stainless steel is not easily cast to produce inexpensive
fashion jewellery.
Two-thirds of all nickel produced goes into stainless steel. The
most common grades used are Type 304, which contains 18% chromium
and 8% nickel, and the more corrosion-resistant Type 316 (18% Cr,
10% Ni, 2% Mo). The unique attributes of corrosion resistance,
clean-ability, ease of fabrication, appearance, availability and,
above all, the bonding of nickel within the alloy so as not to be
absorbed into the bloodstream in quantities to cause a reaction
means the 300 series of surgical stainless steels are the material
of choice for many hygienic applications in food processing,
beverage production, medicine and jewellery manufacture. The 316L
grade is used extensively in findings: the posts, cups and hooks
used in piercing jewellery.
The term "hypoallergenic" or "nickel free" is applied to goods
whereby either nickel is not present (titanium, platinum, palladium
and higher carats of yellow or rose gold - normally 14ct and
higher) or nickel cannot be released at levels into the bloodstream
high enough to trigger an allergic reaction.
Low carat gold and white gold (unless specifically stated to the
contrary) contain nickel and are not hypoallergenic. Certainly when
a statement is made: "I can only where gold or else I'll have a
reaction" it should be treated with some suspicion. People are
allergic to nickel......ones ability to only wear expensive
jewellery is about superiority rather than hypo-allergy.
Hypoallergenic fashion jewellery tends to be made up of a 316L
stainless or titanium post or finding used in the piercing with a
cast substrate plated in a nickel free plating most commonly
rhodium or possibly platinum or a high carat gold (normally
22ct).
Acute sufferers from hypo-allergy are unlikely to react to
jewellery constructed with this type of integrity.
View Euro hypoallergenic earrings.