EN 1811 Nickel Release Testing

EN 1811 is the nickel-release method discussed in LGC 2003 for products intended to come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin. In the report’s description, the article is placed in artificial sweat test solution for one week, and dissolved nickel is measured and expressed as µg/cm2/week.

Method Features Preserved

FeatureSource-grounded description
Target analyteNickel released from an article into the test solution.
Reported unitµg/cm2/week.
Simulant in EN 1811Artificial sweat.
Exposure timeOne week.
Analytical instruments namedAtomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, and other appropriate analytical methodology.
LGC 2003 deviationBlood plasma and urine were also used as test solutions to model piercing-post conditions during epithelization.
LGC 2003 low-level methodHR-ICP-MS was used to reach lower detection limits.

Relation To Nickel Directive Values

ValueContext
0.5 µg/cm2/weekRelease-rate comparator for products in direct and prolonged skin contact, as described in eu-nickel-directive-94-27-ec.
0.2 µg/cm2/weekLGC 2003 recommended migration limit for all piercing post assemblies when tested under EN 1811.

Category 1 Boundary

EN 1811 is not a food analytical method and does not report ppb concentrations in food. It can support nickel route-specific context and contact-material regulation pages, but it cannot directly populate Category 1 infant/child food occurrence cells.