Archive for 25 April 2007
Nickel Oh Nickel
25 April 2007 in Phones | Comments (0)
Apparently, cell phone manufacturers are not aware of the problem that nickel was andstill is, since I’ve started to notice that the nice looking metal covered phones contain nickel. The first one was a quite popular one over at the North American continent: the Motorola RAZR. The keypad (and perhaps other parts of the phone as well) contains som enickel magnesium alloy. I wonder how many people with nickel allergies were surprised to see that coming, and I would like to know how many more got allergic to nickel. 
Well, seems like Nokia decided to join the nickel party with their 6300 phone. A sweet looking phone that I was considering buying as a gift for a relative, but after doing a Google search for ”nokia 6300 nickel” I don’t think so anymore. The search returned a link to the user’s manual where there’s an very appropriate warning:
Warning: The Navi key (4) in this device may contain nickel. It is not designed for prolonged contact with the skin. Continious exposure to nickel on the skin may lead to nickel allergy.
Nice to see that warning in the user’s manual, but why doesn’t the specifications mention the nickel problem. And don’t Nokia know of what materials the phones are made of anymore. “May contain nickel.” 
Of what I can recall, nickel has been (almost completely) abolished from being sold in clocks, clothing and jewlery (including those nasty looking piercing things) in Finland, but this prohibitation doesn’t seem to concern phones currently.
I’m so glad that my N91 is made of aluminum and does not belong to the ”may contain nickel“ group. :)