The EDEN collaboration patch tested adults in the general population. Age-standardised prevalence was 14.5 percent for nickel, 2.1 percent for cobalt, and 0.8 percent for chromium. The sample is 3119 people aged 18 to 74 years. Chromium in this paper is the contact-allergy test, not chromium(VI) in a product.
Key numbers
Nickel prevalence was highest in Portugal at 18.5 percent and lowest in Sweden at 8.3 percent. Cobalt prevalence ranged from 3.8 percent in the Netherlands to 0.9 percent in Italy. Chromium country extremes cited in secondary notes were not re-verified in the same sentence and are omitted. Odds ratios for nickel (female sex, past piercing, three or more piercings) are in the paper and are not product concentrations. Cited release limits of 0.5 and 0.2 μg/cm2/week were not measured in this survey. The nickel patch-test dose is printed as 0.20 mg/cm2.
Methods (brief)
Population patch testing, five countries, age-standardised prevalence. N = 3119.
Evidence fitness
The prevalences support a European adult contact-allergy statement. They do not support contamination of a product category.
Limitations
Chromium country-by-country figures are omitted pending a cleaner read of that sentence. Piercing odds ratios are exposure history, not metal assays.
Related evidence
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