From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-346656-277273
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- Nickel exposure from inexpensive earrings is a
common cause of earlobe dermatitis and repeated exposure can make
treatment difficult, a U.S. study said.
Dermatologist Dr. Howard I. Maibach of the University of California,
San Francisco, and Dr. Jacob Pontoppidan Thyssen purchased 277
inexpensive earrings -- under $50 -- from 34 different stores and
artists in San Francisco.
All earrings purchased were examined with the dimethylglyoxime, or DMG
test -- a routine spot test to detect the presence of nickel.
Of the 277 earrings, 30.7 percent demonstrated at least one spot that
tested DMG-positive for nickel. Price could not predict exposure. In
one store, none of the 44 earrings costing $5 and $8 were DMG
positive, but numerous earrings costing $15 o $25 in another store
were DMG positive.
Maibach said that the highest proportion of DMG-positive earrings came
from local artists, with 69 percent of these earrings testing positive
for nickel. Forty-three percent of earrings purchased from stores in
China Town also tested positive.
The study, published in Journal of the American Academy of
Dermatology, found 24 percent of the earrings purchased at the stores
targeting younger women tested positive for nickel, but only 1.7
percent of earrings from stores targeting women over 40 tested
positive.