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Heavy Metal Index

Contact Allergy and Allergic Contact Dermatitis in Adolescents: Prevalence Measures and Associations. The Odense Adolescence Cohort Study on Atopic Diseases and Dermatitis (TOACS)

Population patch testing of Odense 8th graders found contact allergy in 15.2 percent.

Population patch testing of Odense 8th graders found contact allergy in 15.2 percent. Among metals, nickel sulphate was 8.6 percent, cobalt chloride 1.0 percent, and potassium dichromate 0.5 percent. Rates quoted from other population studies were withheld.

Key numbers

AnalyteMatrixValueUnitStatisticNWhere
Nipatch-tested schoolchildren8.6percentpoint prevalence1146Table II p.3 (printed 354)
Nipatch-tested schoolgirls13.7percentpoint prevalence620Table II p.3 (printed 354)
Nipatch-tested schoolboys2.5percentpoint prevalence526Table II p.3 (printed 354)
Ninickel-positive schoolchildren69.4percentrelevance68/98Table II p.3 (printed 354)
Nipatch-tested schoolchildren8.0percentpoint prevalence1146Table II footnote d p.3 (printed 354)
Nipatch-tested schoolgirls13.2percentpoint prevalence620Table II footnote d p.3 (printed 354)
Nipatch-tested schoolboys1.9percentpoint prevalence526Table II footnote d p.3 (printed 354)
Nipatch-tested schoolchildren6.6percentpoint prevalence1146Table II footnote d p.3 (printed 354)

Methods (brief)

TRUE Test plus nickel sulphate hexahydrate dilution series printed as three concentrations (200, 10, 1 mg/cm2) and one placebo. Ethics project 95/22. Relevance judged from exposure history and dermatitis pattern.

Detection and reporting: not a chemical assay

Basis: point prevalence of a positive patch test

Evidence fitness

This source can support: point prevalence of nickel, cobalt, and chromate contact allergy in Odense adolescents; clinical relevance fractions for those metal reactions.

It cannot support: nickel release from consumer articles; a regulatory nickel limit.

Limitations

Prevalence is sensitization, not metal content of skin or objects. The dilution-series unit is printed as mg/cm2; TRUE Test nickel doses are ordinarily micrograms per square centimetre, but the extraction copies the printed unit and does not convert it. Other-study ranges (nickel 0.9 to 14.9 percent, cobalt 0.5 to 5.7 percent) were withheld. Non-metal allergens in Table II were not entered.

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