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Comment by FieryTransition | Hacker News Reader

You might be allergic, I would get that tested, but it's nothing to worry about, just nice to know. AFAIK most people shouldn't react badly to prolonged skin contact with aluminum in the range that is holding a phone.

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I am - I have an extremely sensitive nickel allergy. The iPhone 12 Pro is a stainless steel body but I think with such a low nickel content that it could be classed as surgical grade, it takes holding for a long time for it to cause blisters. Coins on the other hand (no pun intended) can cause my skin to start bubbling like a burn in no time at all. As far as I'm aware, titanium is almost never mixed with nickel, it's my favourite metal.

Wow that's truly unfortunate. I hope one day health science can solve that problem for you.

Have you travelled to Europe where there's a lot more usage of coins (eg euros/franc)? Do you just have to wear gloves?

Technically I'm in Europe (the continent, but no longer the economic zone) in the UK. It's been years since I've really had to handle coins, but even so, it takes holding it in my hand for maybe 30 minutes to cause the blistering and that's not something I've needed to do very often. Nickel allergy is fairly common but I understand mine is a fair bit more sensitive than most. The main inconvenience from it is having to be very careful about what I buy if I'm going to need to touch it - no metal framed glasses, my wedding ring is zirconium, and the rivets on most jeans will burn me even through my underwear. When a few years ago I found a pair that I liked the fit of, and also had nickel-free rivets, I bought 10 pairs.

I live en Europe too (northern countries) and we almost never handle coins anymore, but nickel itself is in so many things as an alloy. So I can imagine it must be very annoying to buy something and suddenly realise you can't use it due to a rash, that does indeed suck.

Watch out for “golden” titanium. It could be a titanium nitride coating.

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