Abstract
A history of reacting to jewellery contact on the skin is a common symptom of nickel allergy; wearing cheap jewellery is a common cause of nickel sensitization. We analyzed nickel release from 770 white gold jewels with different shape and karatage from the Italian market. Jewels were stored in artificial sweat for 1 week at 30 C and nickel in sweat after the release procedure was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma detection (ICP), according to the European Standard EN1811 “Reference test method for release of nickel”. Nickel release was above 0,5 μg/cm/week in 157 jewels (20,4%), between 0,5 μg/cm/week and 0,1 μg/cm/week in 163 (21,2%) and below 0,1 μg/cm/week in 450 (58,4%). Nickel release was above 0,5 μg/cm/week in 132 out of 432 (30,6%) 14 (or lower) karat gold jewels and in 25 out of 338 (7,4%) 18 karat gold jewels suggesting an inverse relationship between nickel release and karatage. However, when comparing jewels with the same karatage, we found no clear relationship between nickel content and nickel release in the 256 items of which the exact alloy composition was known. Data seem to indicate that other factors, besides nickel content, such as ratio between nickel and other elements, presence of grain refiners and homogenization state of the alloy play a crucial role in nickel release.
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