Why Europe limits nickel, and the US doesn't

Two counts, twelve years apart

In 1985 and 1986, skin clinics across Denmark kept a careful tally. For six months, every patient who came in with eczema was patch tested against the same set of common allergens, and the results were written down. Twelve years later, in 1997 and 1998, the same clinics did it all again: the same time of year, the same methods, the same test substances.

Nickel was the most common allergy both times. But among the children and teenagers tested, something had shifted. In the first count, 24.8% of those aged 18 or under reacted to nickel. In the second, it was 9.2%.

In between, Denmark had brought in rules on how much nickel everyday objects could release onto the skin, and the doctors behind the study looked at whether those rules had played a part. Within a few years, the whole of the EU had a nickel rule of its own. This is the story of how a Danish idea became the law across Europe and Britain, and why it never crossed the Atlantic.

Why nickel, and why jewellery

Nickel is a hard, silvery metal that turns up in a great many alloys. It is also, according to a clinical review published in the journal Contact Dermatitis in 2019, the most frequent cause of contact allergy in the world. Once someone has become allergic, contact with nickel can bring on an itchy rash where the metal touches. The NHS lists nickel among the metals that can cause allergic contact dermatitis.

Jewellery matters because it sits against the skin for hours at a time, often warm and a little damp. When the EU first legislated in 1994, it said so plainly: nickel in objects that come into "direct and prolonged contact with the skin" may make people allergic and lead to allergic reactions. The 2019 review found that jewellery and metal in clothing are still the main causes of nickel allergy and dermatitis.

The law's answer is a clever one. It doesn't ban nickel. It limits how much nickel an object releases onto the skin over a week. A metal can contain nickel and still pass, if the nickel stays locked inside it.

How the European rule came about

When the European Parliament and Council adopted the first EU-wide nickel rule in June 1994, its preamble noted that one member state had already introduced its own measures against nickel allergy, and a second was planning different ones. Rules that differed from country to country would get in the way of trade, so Europe settled on one set for everyone. A 2011 review of the directive describes Denmark's regulation as using the same skin-contact limit that the EU adopted.

The 2004 change is worth a second look. The original rule for piercing posts asked how much nickel they contained. A fresh risk assessment concluded that a limit on how much they release would be more appropriate, and an EU scientific committee agreed that it could lower the risk of people becoming allergic. Release, not content, has been the measure ever since.

What the law says now

Entry 27 of Annex XVII to REACH says that nickel and its compounds shall not be used in three cases. In plain terms:

• Piercing posts. Any post assembly inserted into pierced ears or other pierced parts of the body must release less than 0.2 µg/cm²/week. UK trading standards guidance explains that the post assembly includes the part that goes through the piercing and any faces that hold the piece in place against it, such as the ball or the butterfly back.
• Things worn against the skin. Parts of an article in "direct and prolonged contact with the skin" must not release more than 0.5 µg/cm²/week. The law's own examples are earrings, necklaces, bracelets and chains, anklets, finger rings, wrist-watch cases, watch straps and tighteners, and rivet buttons, tighteners, rivets, zips and metal marks on clothes.
• Coated pieces. If one of those articles has a non-nickel coating, the coating must be good enough to keep release from the skin-contact parts at or below 0.5 µg/cm²/week "for a period of at least two years of normal use".

A microgram is a millionth of a gram, so these are tiny amounts, measured on each square centimetre of metal over a week. They are not a promise that nobody will ever react. The 2011 review of the directive notes that some people react below the 0.5 level, and that nickel allergy was never expected to disappear altogether. The limit was set to protect most people, most of the time.

Notice, too, what the coating rule implies. A plated piece can have a base metal that releases nickel, as long as the plating keeps it in for two years of normal wear. Once plating wears through, the metal underneath is against your skin.

How the limit is tested

The law says the test methods are the standards adopted by CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation. The one that matters here is EN 1811, the "reference test method for release of nickel" from piercing posts and from articles in direct and prolonged contact with the skin. Its stated purpose is to show whether an article complies with entry 27. The current edition is EN 1811:2023, and it doesn't cover spectacle frames and sunglasses, which have a standard of their own, EN 16128.

In outline, the piece is soaked in a standard artificial sweat for a week, and the nickel that has dissolved into the liquid is measured and divided by the area tested. For coated pieces, a separate standard, EN 12472, first simulates wear and corrosion, so the coating can be judged as it would be after use.

The UK after Brexit

The rule didn't leave when the UK left. Under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, REACH was brought into UK law on 1 January 2021 and is now known as UK REACH, the Health and Safety Executive explains. Entry 27 sits in UK REACH's Annex XVII with the same three limits: 0.2 for piercing posts, 0.5 for skin contact, and two years for coatings.

UK REACH covers Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, EU REACH continues to apply. The two systems run independently, so a business selling into both has to meet both. On nickel in jewellery, for now, they say the same thing.

Trading standards guidance for England, Scotland and Wales expects manufacturers and importers normally to have tested their products, and retailers to check with their suppliers, for example by asking to see test certificates. "Doing nothing will not be sufficient," it adds.

The American picture

In the United States, we could find no federal law that limits how much nickel adult jewellery may release. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission's own site search returns nothing for nickel in jewellery. That is not because the allergy is rare there. The American Academy of Dermatology estimates that more than 18 percent of people in North America are allergic to nickel, including 11 million children in the US.

Instead, the burden falls on the shopper. The Academy's advice to people with a nickel allergy is to choose jewellery carefully, naming earrings, earring backs and watches as some of the biggest culprits, and to wear only pieces that are nickel free, hypoallergenic, or made of metals such as surgical-grade stainless steel, 18, 22 or 24 karat yellow gold, sterling silver or platinum. In Europe, a rule in the background does part of that work for you.

The nearest American equivalent is for children. ASTM F2923, a standard specification for children's jewellery, covers jewellery designed or intended mainly for children aged 12 and under, and includes a section on nickel in metal components. Adult jewellery falls under a different ASTM standard. ASTM is a standards organisation, not a government. The CPSC does take part in the work: at a meeting in April 2026 to review the children's standard, CPSC staff recorded a participant's view that "the nickel specification and methods may not be adequate", and noted that it is intended to address the effects of skin contact.

Individual US states make some product safety laws of their own. We have not found a state law setting a nickel release limit for jewellery, but we haven't been able to check every state.

What it means when you buy

• Buying in the UK or EU. Jewellery sold here has to meet entry 27, whatever it is made of and whatever the label says. Earring posts have the stricter limit.
• Buying from further afield. If you order from a country without a nickel limit, the European rules don't travel with the parcel to the maker. Look for a clear statement on nickel release, or ask.
• Plated pieces. The coating has to hold for two years of normal use. Older plated pieces, or ones that have worn through, may behave differently.
• If your skin reacts. The NHS suggests speaking to a pharmacist if contact dermatitis is troubling you, and seeing a GP if symptoms are persistent, recurrent or severe. A GP can refer you to a dermatologist for tests if the cause can't be found.

Back to the Danish clinics

Those two Danish counts, a dozen years apart, are part of why the limits exist in the form they do. The 2019 clinical review found that Europe's nickel regulation led to a fall in nickel allergy. It also found that roughly 8% to 19% of adults in Europe are still allergic, with women far more often affected than men. Two small numbers in a chemicals law have not made the problem vanish. But they sit quietly behind every earring sold in Europe and Britain, which is more than can be said across the Atlantic.