Nickel Allergy: Annoying Side Effect Of Piercing

Posting Date: 01/04/2000

Wearing body piercing jewelry is a fashion that isn?t going to go away, even though it causes nickel allergies ? and crawly skin - in a high percentage of people who engage in the trend.

Some nickel is found in most jewelry and is a common cause of skin itching and irritations. This is an annoying allergy that, once triggered, can make women sensitive to anything containing traces of nickel, even bra straps or air pollution containing the mineral.

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A new study in Norway indicates that ear piercing is one of the biggest factors in the onset of nickel allergies. In a test of 1,767 adults, nickel allergy was found in about one out of three women and in about five percent of men, according to a report in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

What?s interesting here is that 27.5 percent of women in the town of Sar-Varanger, which is close to two Russian nickel smelters, had the allergy. This compared to 31.1 percent of women with nickel allergy in Tromso, a city with no nickel-polluting industry.

The researchers conclude that the nickel allergies can?t be attributed to the nickel industry pollution, and blame it instead on ear piercing procedures and the use of jewelry with nickel in it.

If you?re going to wear body piercing jewelry, you should try to avoid anything that contains nickel, which is difficult. Most grades of stainless steel contain nickel and so does gold jewelry.

There are two materials being used for jewelry that don?t contain nickel ? niobium and titanium. If you don?t want irritating skin problems, you should consider these metals, but my recommendation would be to avoid body piercing altogether.

Source: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Volume 40, No. 5, Part I