Mobile Phone Dermatitis

Doctors Warn Over Rash from Excessive Cell Phone Use

Clinicial testing revealed the reaction was caused by nickel in the mobile phone handsets, where it is often found in the casing or buttons, particularly in the most fashionable models.

Test showed that allergies exposure to hexavalent chromium plating nickel, budesonide, mercaptobenzothiazole, and paraben mix were at least 1.12 times more common.

People that may have had reactions to a nickel-coated belt-buckle or jewellery, for example, you are at greater risk of reacting to metal phones.

In mobile phone dermatitis would typically occur on the cheek or ear, depending on where the metal part of the phone comes into contact with the skin.

You can purchase a test kit (Allertest Ni, Allerderm Laboratories, Phoenix, Arizona), in which we applied a drop of dimethylglyoxime and a drop of ammonium hydroxide solution to a cotton-tipped applicator and rubbed it on the part of the equipment being tested.