White Gold Causes Nickel Allergies

White Gold Causes Nickel Allergies

There are very few metals that you can safely wear as jewelry, the list is small and you know their names: silver, gold and platinum. Silver and platinum are both white metals with silver being the most reflective individual substance in the universe, reflecting back 94% to 99% of all visible light, which is why we use it to create mirrors to this day, nothing is more reflective. The only problem with silver is that it does develop a silver sulfide layer on the surface that we call tarnish, but that can be reversed with a redox reaction using baking soda, salt, aluminum foil and boiling water, or can be polished off with a jeweler’s cloth.

Platinum reflects back around 80% of the light when freshly created, but will often develop a matte finish over time, which leads designers to coat it with rhodium, another metal from the Platinum group that is harder and also reflects back around 80% of visible light, looking like chrome. In the mid-century designers like Harry Winston used a 90% blend of platinum and iridium that was softer and whiter than modern 950 platinum mixed with ruthenium, cobalt or iridium.

The first and only hypoallergenic white gold was created in the early 1900s by using nearly equal portions of palladium and silver, it is known as palladium white gold; platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium are all in the Platinum group of elements so palladium makes it whiter than just using silver. By doing this what was called Electrum at the time, or gold mixed with pure silver was moved into what you could call the first "white gold" though it doesn't look pure white, it looks pale yellow compared to electrum which is pale yellowish green.

During World War II platinum, copper and silver restrictions in jewelry use made the jewelry industry stop using platinum and sterling silver, and because nickel is mostly a free byproduct of platinum and silver mining they replaced platinum and some silver jewelry with nickel white gold and they rhodium coated it to make it look like platinum (and potentially to protect people from the nickel).

Around 1 out of 20 people start out allergic to nickel and if you keep being exposed to it over time the statistics show that women have three to four times higher of a rate of nickel allergy due to being exposed to both stainless steel and nickel white gold where the rhodium coating has worn off. They don't only coat nickel white gold with rhodium to make it look shinier, they do it to make it hypoallergenic, which is fine for stud earrings. It's not like the rhodium is going to wear off of the stud sitting inside a pierced ear, but with wedding bands or any other kind of rings or jewelry the rhodium does wear off, and then people are exposed to the nickel, and they've been rhodium coating nickel white gold since World War II just to provide an alternative to platinum, and despite containing nickel it is sold as “nickel free” and “hypoallergenic” because of the rhodium coating.

So what gold is real? Before World War II gold jewelry came in 22K, 18K, 15K, 14K, 10K and 9K but were made exclusively with pure gold, and either pure silver, pure copper, or a blend of the two, with the one exception being palladium white gold.

If you mix 50% copper with 50% silver and blend it into pure orange-yellow gold and you use 75% gold and split the remaining 25% into equal parts silver and copper you get 18 karat yellow gold. If you use just copper you get 18 karat rose gold, if you mix 18 karat gold with pure silver, you get something that was called electrum in the past and would be considered pale yellow with a greenish tint, and 14 karat gold mixed with pure silver was sold as green gold in the mid-century.

They have to rhodium coat nickel white gold because the nickel causes an allergic reaction in some people, and over time of more exposure more people became allergic to nickel, right now in the United States somewhere around 4 to 5% of men and at least 15 to 16% of women are allergic to nickel. This process is known as allergic contact dermatitis caused by sensitization. So what is safe to wear? Do not wear cheap earrings or jewelry, don't use stainless steel because all stainless steel whether it's surgical or not contains nickel. Don't get anything made of white gold other than stud earrings, or maybe a pendant. If you want white metal buy platinum or silver, there is no need to buy white gold jewelry, in America it is almost always nickel white gold coated with rhodium to create a hypoallergenic layer between you and the nickel jewelry.

And these days they are rhodium coating everything. If you buy platinum they will rhodium coat it. If you buy something called white gold, they will rhodium coat it. If you buy silver jewelry from Italy right now, it will probably come rhodium coated because people have lost the ability to clean their own jewelry, and think that it is maintenance-free. But just like with white gold jewelry, silver jewelry or platinum jewelry coated with rhodium like bracelets and rings will need periodic maintenance re-dips of the rhodium coating, meaning you have to visit a jeweler and pay them to do that once a year. And the most important thing is that you're just looking at rhodium. You might as well buy silver jewelry and have it coated with rhodium. What's the point of paying for the white gold up charge or platinum up charge if you're just looking at rhodium anyway? In the case of silver, it's a serious downgrade to coat something that's 94% to 99% reflective with something that's around 80% reflective just because you think it's going to be maintenance free, when it is not really maintenance free at all.

There is no reason to ever coat platinum with rhodium but they do, and there is no good reason to coat silver, the only metal that requires rhodium coating is nickel white gold because of the nickel allergies. Then they will lie and say that it is hypoallergenic white gold, or “nickel free” white gold even if the hypoallergenic coating can wear off and expose you to nickel. The only hypoallergenic white gold isn't white, it's pale yellow and it's called palladium white gold, made with a platinum group element, silver and gold.

The only hypoallergenic metals in America are 925 silver, 10K, 14K, and 18K yellow gold, rose gold, or palladium white gold, and platinum. If you want a white metal, get either silver or platinum, gold should only ever come in yellow gold and rose gold, or in the very rare palladium white gold which is really a pale yellow anyway.

Nickel white gold is the likely cause of most women's nickel allergies, which is why they coat them in rhodium and call that hypoallergenic. Rhodium is only hypoallergenic until it wears off, and since rhodium is a 6 on the Mohs scale of hardness and quartz, the most common component in beach sand is a 7 on the Mohs scale, simply digging in sand or dirt will scrape the rhodium right off of the outside of a white gold ring, then contact with your other fingers allows the leaching of nickel into your body.