{"id":724,"date":"2020-02-12T08:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T08:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/?p=724"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:35:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:35:59","slug":"the-ec-nickel-directive-body-piercing-jewellery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/02\/the-ec-nickel-directive-body-piercing-jewellery\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need To Know About REACH; Nickel Directive & Body Piercing Jewellery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is The Nickel Directive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nickel Directive is a European Union regulation that\nrestricts the amount of nickel that can be present in piercing jewellery and\ndictates the method for measuring the nickel released from any such metal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EC Nickel Directive first came into place in 2001 and has since been updated many times.  On 1 June 2009 the EC Nickel Directive was incorporated into the REACH<\/a> (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current EC Nickel Directive is 1907\/2006 REACH Annex XVII, Item 27.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Do We Need The Nickel\nDirective?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 10% of the\npopulation has a sensitivity to nickel and this is caused by skin absorption of\nnickel ions, released from nickel containing materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EC Nickel Directive was\nbrought in to combat this by specifying the release rate of nickel in articles\nwhich have a direct and prolonged contact with the skin; with additional\nregulations specifically for products that are used in body piercings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nickel Contact in Every Day\nLife<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will probably come into\ncontact with nickel almost every day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many every day metals contain\nnickel.  UK 5p and 10p coins are steel coated in nickel to make them\nsilver coloured and shiny.  UK 20p and 50p coins are made with a metal\nalloy containing 25% nickel and 75% copper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some door handles, zippers, jean\nrivets, belt buckles, keys, paperclips, taps, keyrings, kitchen utensils,\ncutlery and metal framed glasses are just a few of the many items that could\ncontain or have a layer of nickel in your daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is Nickel Present in Some\nJewellery?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many metals used in jewellery\nare alloys; a mixture of metals.  For example pure 100% Silver is a soft\nmetal and not durable for jewellery by itself so a harder metal like copper is\nadded to the Silver to make it more durable.  925 Sterling Silver is\nactually a metal alloy made from 92.5% of pure Silver mixed with 7.5% of other\nharder metals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nickel is a hard and durable\nmetal and sometimes it is added to softer metals to improve the strength of the\nalloy. Nickel is also used sometimes to brighten the look of a metal and when\nadded to yellow gold it can produce a white gold alloy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nickel Content V\u2019s Nickel\nRelease<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most important factor is not\nnecessarily the content of nickel in an item but the rate that any such nickel\nis released into the skin and this is what the EC Nickel Directive limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order for jewellery to be\ndeemed safe to come into direct and prolonged contact with the skin any such\narticle must have a migration limit (nickel release rate) of less than 0.88\u00b5g\/cm2\/week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally for body piercing\njewellery to conform the migration limit (nickel release rate) must be less\nthan 0.35\u00b5g\/cm2\/week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for piercing jewellery that\u2019s less\nthan 0.35 micrograms of nickel released, per square centimetre, over a 1 week\nperiod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Do You Test The Nickel\nRelease Rate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDi Body Jewellery Ltd has been working with The Sheffield Assay Office<\/a>, Analytical Service since 1999.  The Sheffield Assay Office are UKAS<\/a> accredited<\/a> and regularly test our jewellery in accordance with the BSEN1811:2011 +A1:2015 (inc BSEN12472) test method.  Prior to this test the Assay Office subject the jewellery to a procedure of corrosion and wear which simulates a period of two years’ normal use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This regular testing of TDi Body Jewellery<\/a> is undertaken to ensure that our jewellery conforms to the EC Nickel Directive 1907\/2006 REACH Annex XVII, Item 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally TDi Body Jewellery Ltd have\nin place a \u2018due diligence\u2019 system, as recommended by the Assay Office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recognition of our compliance with the\nNickel Directive, The Sheffield Assay Office has issued TDi Body Jewellery Ltd\nwith the following Certificate of Conformity as shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The UK is no longer part of\nthe EU so do we still need to comply with the EC Nickel Directive Regulations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the UK is no longer\npart of the EU, TDi Body Jewellery continue to supply many customers in the EU\nand worldwide.  It is important to us that we provide the very best\nquality jewellery to all our customers and therefore we continue to test and\nprovide jewellery that conforms to the EC Nickel Directive\/REACH regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the UK government\nsubsequently put in place new or additional regulations we would ensure full\ncompliance with any such regulation(s) at that time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is The Nickel Directive? The Nickel Directive is a European Union regulation that restricts the amount of nickel that can be present in piercing jewellery and dictates the method for measuring the nickel released from any such metal. The EC Nickel Directive first came into place in 2001 and has since been updated many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[27,122,120,9,121,8,123],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ec-nickel-directive","tag-body","tag-directive","tag-ec","tag-jewellery","tag-nickel","tag-piercing","tag-testing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3665,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/3665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bodyjewellery.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}