According to the UK's Telegraph, mobile phones are responsible for yet another one of the great terrors of the 21st century: dermatitis. Apparently, "skin specialists" have discovered that certain metals used in cellphones are causing some users to suffer inflamed, reddened, dry, blistered, and cracked skin. Sounds awesome, right? It seems that about a third of heavy talkers are sensitive to nickel -- a substance commonly found in gadgets -- which can become irritating after repeated exposure. Says Brown University's Dr. Lionel Bercovitch, "Given the widespread use of cellphones, the presence of metal in the exterior casing of these phones and the high prevalence of nickel sensitization in the population, it is not surprising that cellphones can cause allergic contact dermatitis." There's probably little you can do to out-and-out escape the problem, so we suggest full face mask whenever a call needs to be made -- also, for dinner parties.
posted Oct 18th 2008 1:26PM
hydrocortisone
It doesn't work.
I work with joint replacement products in which many contain nickel. I know that it's far less than 1/3 of the people are sensitive to nickel. It's probably closer to 1%.
My wife is allergic to nickel. Whenever she buys jewelery she has to look for certain nickel-free blends. Many jewelers report it as being a problem, so much so that many of them have gone to nickel-free production.
tounge tied joey!
Dammit, I lost the game.