Nickel Named 2008 Contact Allergen of the Year

The American Contact Dermatitis Society has named nickel the Allergen of the Year for 2008.  In a recent article written by Kathryn Zug, MD and Rachel Kornick, MD of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH they cited “…the rising incidence of nickel allergy in the United States and elsewhere, high nickel sensitization rates documented in children, and a resurgent issue of biomedical device complication (specifically, nickel allergy) due to metal, to dismiss nickel’s importance and relevance to public health and skin disease would be a mistake.”

Kornick R, Zug KA. Nickel. Dermatitis 2008; 19:3-8