Nickel as an Occupational Allergen

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Abstract
THE ORIGINAL descriptions1,2 of nickel sensitivity were made in workers employed in the manufacture of nickel and in nickel plating. Sensitization and contact dermatitis from nickel can result from industrial exposure in the refining of the metal from its ores,3 in nickel plating,4,5 in the production of storage batteries, in the manufacture of some types of enamel or glass,6 and in certain chemical processes where nickel catalysts are used.7 In these industries, nickel-tolerant workers tend to be selected by a process of elimination or, in some cases, nickel-sensitive subjects are excluded by a policy of preemployment patch testing using a nickel salt. Improvements in industrial hygiene have also been made, so that nickel sensitivity, common in nickel platers before 1930, is now relatively uncommon in that group,4,8,9 apart from certain isolated outbreaks.5 Nonetheless, in a large demographic study10 of industrial dermatoses, nickel was found to be the predominant occupational allergen in women and one of the 10 most common in men.

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