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Is Nickel Safe? (10082)
By Bruce R. Conard, reprinted from The Proceedings of the Nickel-Cobalt '97 International Symposium, Vol. III, August 1997. The environmental and human health risks posed by certain chemical substances are very real and must be assessed and managed to prevent harm. In the case of metallic elements such as nickel, however, there is a tendency by the public and regulators to incorrectly oversimplify and misrepresent toxicological information by assigning the same toxicity to all compounds containing the metal. As a result, many people erroneously think "nickel" (meaning all forms and compounds of nickel) is dangerous to the environment and is a threat to human health. This paper provides an overview of the animal and human health studies that exist which indicate that some specific compunds of nickel must be carefully managed, but that the majority of nickel compounds and the metallic form itself (including alloys) show little or no evidence of causing adverse health effects. Gaps in knowledge and specific research programs underway in this field are discussed.
