The EU nickel rule for jewellery, explained

If you shop in the EU, nickel in jewellery is not left to the seller’s goodwill. Entry 27 of Annex XVII to REACH, the EU chemicals regulation, sets limits on how much nickel an item may release. If you shop in the US, the one US source we read, a CPSC jewelry FAQ, describes no mandatory federal requirements specifically for jewelry. This page covers what the EU text says, what the limits measure, and what they do not tell you. It is a regulatory explainer, not medical advice, and it recommends no products.

What the rule says

The European Commission’s REACH page states that restrictions concerning nickel are set out in entry 27 of Annex XVII to REACH, and that specific analytical standards have been developed to monitor compliance. We also read three excerpts of the consolidated REACH text from the EU Publications Office (the 1 January 2021 version). Taken together they give three rules:

• Post assemblies. Nickel is restricted in post assemblies inserted into pierced ears and other pierced parts of the human body, unless the rate of nickel release from them is less than 0.2 micrograms per square centimetre per week. The text calls this a migration limit.
• Skin-contact articles. For the parts of the covered articles that come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin, the restriction applies if nickel release is greater than 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week.
• Coated articles. Where an article has a non-nickel coating, the coating must be sufficient to keep release from the skin-contact parts at or under 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week “for a period of at least two years of normal use of the article.”

So there are two numbers, and the lower one is for what goes through the skin. That fits what a 1996 review abstract in Contact Dermatitis says about the older directive: it limited the nickel concentration in post assemblies, set 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week for products in direct and prolonged contact with the skin, “e.g. earrings, watchstraps or zippers”, and required coated products to stay under that level after two years of normal use. Note that the 1996 abstract describes a concentration limit of 0.05% for post assemblies, while the consolidated text excerpt we read gives a release limit of 0.2 micrograms per square centimetre per week. We did not read the text that connects the two, so we do not describe how the rule changed.

The excerpts we read do not list every article covered, so we do not give a full list. Our guides to nickel-free earrings, watch bands and belt buckles cover the kinds of items the 1996 abstract mentions.

What “release” means

The limits are about how fast nickel comes out of an item, not how much nickel the item contains. The unit is micrograms of nickel per square centimetre of surface per week. A 2010 abstract describes EN 1811 as a European standard reference method from the European Committee for Standardization, fine-tuned to estimate release around the limit value from products meant for direct and prolonged skin contact. It also notes that EN 1811 assessments are expensive, take time, and may destroy the test item. In another abstract, a 2016 paper compares two artificial sweat solutions and describes the EN 1811 sweat as the one intended for testing compliance with the REACH nickel restriction.

That makes the rule a laboratory test, so a seller’s marketing words do not by themselves show compliance. A Helsinki study from 1998 tested 66 piercing earring items by two methods. In that study, 25 of the 66 objects (38%) released at least 0.05% nickel, and after artificial sweat treatment 11 released more than 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week. That was a study of items in the Helsinki market, and we do not know how it compares with today’s market. Our guide on how nickel release is tested goes into the home spot test and its limits.

Coatings and the two-year clause

The coating clause matters for plated jewellery. A non-nickel coating is allowed, but only if it holds back release for at least two years of normal use. A 1996 British Journal of Dermatology abstract patch-tested a range of alloys and coatings in 100 nickel-sensitive people. It reports that nickel interliners under gold, silver or chromium plating, as well as nickel-silver and some white-gold alloys, caused positive patch-test reactions, while three non-plated stainless-steel alloys did not. It also says the results were used as the basis for the analytical methods proposed as European Standards for the Nickel Directive. For how plating terms differ, see gold plated, gold filled and vermeil, and for gold alloys, 14k gold and nickel allergy.

Why meeting the limit is not a promise

The 1996 review abstract says that 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week is a level below which a minority of nickel-allergic subjects will react, and that the level does not hold for every nickel-sensitive person. It adds that many nickel-containing alloys and items made of high-sulfur stainless steel exceeded the level at that time. DermNet says the degree of nickel allergy varies, with some people reacting after brief contact and others only after many years, and that nickel allergy often lasts for life. Diagnosis is by history and patch tests. For any question about your own skin, a dermatologist or allergy clinician is the right person to ask.

The limits also cover nickel only. Other metals have their own questions, which our pages on surgical steel and 316L, titanium grades and niobium address separately.

EU law and the United States

The EU rule is EU law. It applies to items placed on the EU market, and the REACH text we read is the source for the limits above. The only US document we read on the subject is the CPSC’s jewelry FAQ. It says “there are no mandatory federal requirements specifically for jewelry”, and it refers to voluntary industry consensus standards, ASTM F2999 for adult jewelry and ASTM F2923 for children’s jewelry. It adds that children’s jewelry must meet the requirements for children’s products, such as total lead content and lead in paint and similar surface coatings. The excerpt we read does not mention nickel, so no US equivalent of the EU nickel limits turned up in the documents read. We did not search US state law, so we cannot say none exists.

A US shopper might still see “EU nickel compliant” on a listing. The documents we read give no way to check that claim, so treat it as the seller’s statement and ask for the test method and result. That is the same stance our hypoallergenic jewelry guide takes with other label words, and what hypoallergenic means for jewelry explains why the word is not a standard.

Where to go next

• Choosing earrings for a nickel allergy: nickel-free earrings and hypoallergenic earrings.
• New piercings: earrings for piercing, since post assemblies are the item with the lowest limit.
• Wedding bands: nickel-free wedding rings.
• The wider picture: nickel allergy and jewelry.