Why is nickel allowed?
This is a very good question. The first country to limit the use of nickel in products was Denmark, all the way back in 1991! Statistics show a dramatic drop in nickel allergy in people born after that year. All of Europe followed Denmark’s example in 2000. Since then, all of Europe has shown a marked decrease in nickel allergy. So why not in the United States? Most likely it has to do with economics. So many companies have products sourced from China, where pricing competition is fierce, that it is considered too costly to cater to a minority of nickel allergy sufferers. However, this is changing. Some statistics show that the true number of people with nickel allergy is getting closer to 20% of the population. This is no longer a small minority! The more we get pierced (by so called “surgical grade stainless steel”) the more of us develop nickel allergy. Many larger companies are starting to recognize this skyrocketing population and are adopting “nickel free” sourcing guidelines. We
