Gold and Nickel Release From Gold‐Plated Earrings Under Cysteine‐Modified Artificial Sweat Conditions
Mikkel Bak Jensen, Malin Glindvad Ahlström, Morten S. Jellesen, Saman Nikpour, René Daniel Pütz, Yolanda Hedberg, Jeanne Duus Johansen · 2026
Read Gold and Nickel Release From Gold‐Plated Earrings Under Cysteine‐Modified Artificial Sweat Conditions by Mikkel Bak Jensen, Malin Glindvad Ahlström, Morten S. Jellesen, Saman Nikpour, René Daniel Pütz, Yolanda Hedberg, Jeanne Duus Johansen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13551404.txt.
Description
Mikkel Bak Jensen and co-authors soak cheap gold-plated earrings in souped-up artificial sweat and find nickel pouring out of nearly all of them, in a 2026 study. Gold allergy shows on skin tests yet rarely matters clinically; nickel allergy is common and regulated. Standard sweat tests detect no gold release at all. So the team added the amino acid cysteine to mimic skin chemistry better. Ten pairs of earrings were bathed for a week at body-warm temperature.
Every pair released nickel, the median above the European limit, with the worst ten times it. Gold itself escaped from four pairs in trace amounts. Microscopy found the gold layer patchy, present in only a third of the parts sectioned. The authors conclude gold plating on cheap earrings does not reliably shield wearers from nickel, whatever the marketing says.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Mikkel Bak Jensen, Malin Glindvad Ahlström, Morten S. Jellesen, Saman Nikpour, René Daniel Pütz, Yolanda Hedberg, Jeanne Duus Johansen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 25 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |