Nickel Industry Response to Reuters (Stockholm)
November 24, 2001 -- Re: your report of 23rd November: "Euro coins could cause skin disease - study"
I found the above report both surprising and seriously misleading. Carrying the good name of Reuters, this report will lead to widespread misunderstanding about the key issues associated with the use of nickel in coinage. The nickel industry suggests that it would be in the interests of all parties that Reuters follow up this misleading report quickly with a clearer statement of the issues involved.
Nickel has been used in most of the world's currency systems for many decades - sometimes (as in France, Netherlands, Canada and South Africa) in the form of pure nickel but more usually in the form of an alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel called cupronickel. Cupronickel has long been used as a "silver" coin in most European countries, including Sweden, and the UK.
Both cupronickel and nickel are excellent production materials for coins being easy to produce, shiny and corrosion resistant in normal use, and capable of very long useful life. At the end of life (usually caused by changes in the monetary system), coins made from both may be withdrawn and fully recycled into new coins. Coins that include nickel have distinct and easily detectable magnetic properties that are particularly useful for high face value coinage as security against fraud. This added security is one reason for nickel being included in the complex high value one- and two-euro coins being issued now in Europe.
The EU directive referred to in your report is the EU Nickel Directive, sometimes called the "Jewellery Directive", which was introduced to regulate products which are designed to be worn in close and prolonged contact with the skin. Applications covered by this directive include jewellery, watches, spectacle frames and clothing fasteners. For this type of application, nickel release from simulated sweat solutions is a valid method for assessing the likelihood of risk of either making wearers sensitive to nickel or causing already sensitive wearers to have allergic reaction. Hence, in the Nickel Directive, nickel release rate has been used as a acceptance test for products for such applications. If an article releases more than a certain amount of nickel in a standard test it is deemed to be unacceptable for use in close and prolonged contact with the skin. Nickel and cupronickel usually do not pass this release test so their use in such applications is inappropriate if the nickel or cupronickel surfaces are designed to be in close and prolonged contact with the skin. Incidentally,many alloys containing nickel - such as stainless steel - do pass the release test and are appropriate for use in close and prolonged contact with the skin. The nickel industry, through the Nickel Development Institute, co-operated closely with the EU authorities in the development of the Nickel Directive and continues to collaborate on ways of improving the practical efficiency of the directive. The industry is also committed to action outside the EU to discourage the inappropriate use of nickel in such articles.
But all of this does not mean that nickel or cupronickel is unsuitable for use as a coinage material where, in normal handling and use, contact with the skin is short and intermittent, not prolonged.
This distinction was recognised in the drafting of the EU Nickel Directive, where considerable effort was made to identify the underlying causes of nickel allergic contact dermatitis and especially to take account of factors such as the nature of the contact. Products designed to be worn in prolonged contact with the skin were listed as those for which control was necessary. Nickel-containing coins were not perceived to present a significant risk and, consequently, were not listed.
This was supported by the absence of any statistically-significant evidence of above- average incidence of nickel allergic contact dermatitis amongst workers involved in handling nickel metal and cupronickel metal in industrial plants producing coinage or in major banks.
On the specific matter of materials for euro coins, the EU commissioned a targeted risk assessment by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency of "Nickel as Used in Eurocoins". The principal conclusion of this assessment included the statement: "No evidence exists to suggest that exposure to current coinage has been associated with induction of allergic contact dermatitis in workers handling coins or in the ordinary consumer". Following this, the European Commission's Scientific Committee issued the statement that "Existing nickel-containing coins and materials proposed for the new one- and two- eurocoins present a negligible level of risk to public health".
The study essentially confirms that the nickel-containing one- and two-euro coins will be expected to release nickel at rates that would make them unsuitable to be used in close and prolonged contact with the skin. The nickel industry agrees. Nickel-containing euro coins should not be used as jewellery. But they can and will be a great success as coins. Nothing in the study concludes that the nickel-containing euro coins will be expected to "cause skin disease" as stated in your headline. The nickel industry believes that use of nickel in coinage is very appropriate and that nickel should continue to play a key part in sophisticated coinage systems for the future.
Dr Ivor Kirman
President, Nickel Development Institute
and Vice-Chairman, European Nickel Group
42 Weymouth Street
London W1G 6NP
Tel: 44 20 7258 9831
Fax: 44 20 7487 4964
Email: ikirman@nidi.org
