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| Piercing jewelry
takes the blame for nickel allergies like cars might be blamed for traffic accidents. Dr. Matthew Zirwas reports that nickel allergies in the US are likely incorrectly attributed to [piercing] jewelry metals (e.g. nickel in piercing jewelry). There is evidence he says that the diet and other factors may be major contributors and that "nickel" allergies come and go relative to the ingested foods we eat: "Healthy" type foods like oatmeal, whole grains, nuts, soy which contain trace amounts [of nickel] build up in the body over time. Change your diet. (See below) Dr. Matthew Zirwas Because Finland has a high nickel environment they were able to persuade the EU authorities to ban 316L in the EU because nickel is an ingredient in stainless steel. The EU requires the use of Titanium for initial piercings. This is sad because the nickel in the bulk material never contacts the skin at all, at any time. 316L stainless steel is incorrectly blamed. ------------------------ 316L is made with 10-14% nickel. The Industry Standard for initial piercing. F138 316LVM is made with 13-15% nickel - (More nickel than 316L) Anyone writing that because Stainless Steel (like 316L) contains nickel it therefore is unsuitable for piercing jewelry should not get your business. To accurately regard the nickel content in stainless steel relative to piercing use, I would like to use an analogy. Analogies are not meant as proof but as an aid in understanding a particular concept. When you touch the human body you touch the skin, not what is beneath the skin, the muscles, blood, dermis etc. Like skin, Chromium in stainless steels coats every inch of the bulk stainless steel including the surface. The chromium imparts the shiny appearance and is so resistant to corrosion it has long been used for medical implants within the body. The corrosion expert, Uhlig, writes in his authoritative work, Corrosion that all metals deteriorate in a liquid environment, but some metals are strongly resistant and a chromium layer is one of the best defenses against corrosion. Chromium is mixed in stainless steels and is everywhere including the surface. When you touch your kitchen faucet you only contact the chromium oxide surface film, not the nickel in the bulk metal, never, which is why there are no claims of getting nickel allergy from faucets. Piercing Jewelry is inappropriately blamed. You can't get nickel from 316L through contact in body piercing. The thin chromium layer isn't rubbed away. When it is damaged it quickly forms the protective chromium layer again by drawing oxygen from the surrounding air or liquid, just like epidermal cells proliferate on their own and repairs the deficit of the skin. The only way to get nickel to leach from the bulk is by boiling it at 300 degrees C for 10 hours in tomato sauce. The claims that nickel is leached from 316L is a fiction to get you to buy a more expensive kind that is no better at all in the application of pierced jewelry. A scam to get yurmmoney (F138, 316LVM) because it makes no difference whatsoever for body jewelry. The only reports of nickel coming from stainless steel is of medically implanted devices at the crevice point of a screw holding a plate to a bone that the liquid environment is depleted of oxygen. It happens with medical implants inside the body, not piercing jewelry. When oxygen in air or liquid contacts a SS product the oxygen immediately bonds with the chromium that is on the surface creating chromium oxides everywhere, a thin layer that resists liquid or air corrosion. As long as oxygen is present (washing, moving, exposing to air) your 316L piercing jewelry will never leach allergy producing nickel. Consider that nickel-sensitive people do not break out in a rash when they touch a stainless steel fork, or railings ubiquitously made of SS. Even the CDC on line Toxic look at Nickel seems to miss the error 1) Nickel causes allergies. It is not fair for the CDC to publish statements that lead people to think they can develop an allergy from the nickel if they use 316L body piercing jewelry rather than F138 which is no better than 316L.
A customer having been propagandized by unscrupulous suppliers of piercing
jewelry said they would not use 316L jewelry because it contains nickel.
They want to use 316LVM (F-138) because it had no nickel or very very
little. F138 316LVM has 13-15% nickel.
I have written extensively on this subject at wreyeting.org because some
suppliers and lobby groups have been doing their very best to convince
unwary consumers and health departments to require the use of F138 316LVM
and ban 316L. ----------------------- …For people who have puzzling rashes and have had reactions to metal items such as earrings, belt buckles or watches, Zirwas suggests they pay attention to their diets. In addition to avoiding foods that are high in nickel, Dr. Zirwas tells patients to take vitamin C with every meal because it will bind to the nickel in the food and prevent absorption….It can be really hard to figure out that the nickel in their diet is the source…Nickel is one of the most common metals in our environment. It naturally occurs as a mineral in soil and in drinking water. Nickel is commonly used as a protective coating for other metals and it is used in coins, glass, ceramics, magnets and batteries.
Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center, Rash of Nickel Food
Allergies linked to a Healthier Diet, March 1, 2012 |