Scientists count cost of euro allergy

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Scientists count cost of euro allergy

 
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   Scientists count cost of euro allergy

James Meek, science correspondent
Thursday September 12, 2002
The Guardian

Anxious Andrés, jiggling change in their pockets as they wait for the bus; fidgety Françoises, compulsively making piles of euros on their desks; eager Eduardos, running off to the pastry shop with coins clutched in their sweaty little fists - all should beware the toxic ring and pill.

Today Swiss scientists reveal just how allergenic the euro coins are to those suffering from nickel allergy, a relatively common syndrome.

Writing in Nature, researchers at Zurich University's dermatology department said that one and two euro coins released more nickel than pure nickel itself.

The amounts released were up to 320 times higher than those permitted by EU rules for prolonged contact with human skin. "Whether or not this is acceptable by European standards hinges on the meaning of prolonged contact," the scientists said.

In skin tests with both coins taped to their skin seven volunteers known to suffer nickel allergies experienced redness of the skin and the formation of vesicles, blisters like those seen in chicken pox.

Both coins are made up of two kinds of metal, a central "pill" and an outer "ring". One part is yellow nickel brass - copper, zinc and 5% nickel - the other white cupro-nickel, which is 75% copper and 25% nickel.

The Swiss team found that when combined with human sweat the coins acted like weak batteries, with a current flowing through the sweat between the two alloys. The current causes the metals to corrode more quickly, releasing more nickel.

When the scientists suspended a one euro coin in "artificial human sweat" it turned brown and began to erode. However, this was after 36 hours' exposure.

A spokesman for the European Central Bank said that matters of coins and notes were dealt with by a European commission body called the mint directors' working group. Asked by the Guardian whether the commission had taken or might take any action over the nickel problem, Anne Ropers, secretary of the group's board office, said: "I am not entitled to comment."

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