engleski

Investigation of allergenic metals on fashion acessories and decorative metallized yarns

The majority of everyday fashion accessories contain metals, although some of them (Ni, Cr, Co) may cause allergies. Due to the corrosion process which occurs in the sweat, metal ions can cause allergic reactions during direct and prolonged contact with the skin. Nickel, originating from different sources such as metalized yarns, jewelry or buttons, represents the most common cause of contact allergic dermatitis [1]. For example, 20 % of female population and about 6 % of male population was allergic to nickel [2], but after adopting new regulative during the last 10 years, this number reduced to 15-17% of women, and 1-3% of man population. Some researchers presume that the trigger for such discrepancies between the genders is the nickel jewelry which induces the contact allergic dermatitis in women population. Therefore, the aim of this research was to estimate the possible risk of allergies resulting from the direct skin exposure to fashion accessories. Different items (buttons, metalized yarns and coins) were characterized by chromatographic, spectroscopic and microscopic methods [3-5]. Combination of ICP-OES, SEM-EDX, TLC, and FTIR provided information on samples constitution, morphology, topology and chemical composition. In addition, the samples were tested for metal leaching: in order to obtain information on the amounts of metals released by their daily usage, extraction experiments of metalized items were performed applying an artificial acidic sweat solution at 30°C during different time extraction periods. After the extraction, the mass of the metals released (Cu, Fe, Ni and Zn) were quantified by inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The mass rate of Ni extracted per area much exceeded the permissible values according to the European Norm (from 50 to 110 times). This indicates that nickel containing fashion accessories may represent a serious health hazard, especially to sensitive people and should be used with a special attention.

Investigation of allergenic metals on fashion acessories and decorative metallized yarns

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