1. What is Nickel? Pure nickel is a hard, silvery-white metal, which has properties that make it very desirable for combining with other metals to form mixtures called alloys. Some of the metals that nickel can be alloyed with are iron, copper, chromium, and zinc. These alloys are used in making metal coins and jewelry and in industry for making items such as valves and heat exchangers. Most nickel is used to make stainless steel. There are also compounds consisting of nickel combined with many other elements, including chlorine, sulfur, and oxygen. Many of these nickel compounds are water soluble (dissolve fairly easily in water) and have a characteristic green color. Nickel and its compounds have no characteristic odor or taste. Nickel compounds are used for nickel plating, to color ceramics, to make some batteries, and as substances known as catalysts that increase the rate of chemical reactions.
2. How Can Nickel Affect My Health? Scientists use many tests to protect the public from harmful effects of toxic chemicals and to find ways for treating persons who have been harmed.
One way to learn whether a chemical will harm people is to determine how the body absorbs, uses, and releases the chemical. For some chemicals, animal testing may be necessary. Animal testing may also help identify health effects such as cancer or birth defects. Without laboratory animals, scientists would lose a basic method for getting information needed to make wise decisions that protect public health. Scientists have the responsibility to treat research animals with care and compassion. Scientists must comply with strict animal care guidelines because laws today protect the welfare of research animals.
The most common harmful health effect of nickel in humans is an allergic reaction. Approximately 10-20% of the population is sensitive to nickel. A person can become sensitive to nickel when jewelry or other items containing nickel are in direct contact and prolonged contact with the skin. Wearing jewelry containing nickel in ears or other body parts that have been newly pierced may also sensitize a person to nickel. However, not all jewelry containing nickel releases enough of the nickel ion to sensitize a person. Once a person is sensitized to nickel, further contact with the metal may produce a reaction. The most common reaction is a skin rash at the site of contact. In some sensitized people, dermatitis (a type of skin rash) may develop in an area of the skin that is away from the site of contact. For example, hand eczema (another type of skin rash) is fairly common among people sensitized to nickel. Some workers exposed to nickel by inhalation can become sensitized and have asthma attacks, but this is rare. People who are sensitive to nickel have reactions when nickel comes into prolonged contact with the skin. Some sensitized individuals react when they eat nickel in food or water or breathe dust containing nickel. More women are sensitive to nickel than men. This difference between men and women is thought to be a result of greater exposure of women to nickel through jewelry and other metal items.
People who are not sensitive to nickel must eat very large amounts of nickel to suffer harmful health effects. Workers who accidentally drank light-green water containing 250 ppm of nickel from a contaminated drinking fountain had stomach aches and suffered adverse effects in their blood (increased red blood cells) and kidneys (increased protein in the urine). This concentration of nickel is more than 100,000 times greater than the amount usually found in drinking water.
The most serious harmful health effects from exposure to nickel, such as chronic bronchitis, reduced lung function, and cancer of the lung and nasal sinus, have occurred in people who have breathed dust containing certain nickel compounds while working in nickel refineries or nickel-processing plants. The levels of nickel in these workplaces were much higher than usual (background) levels in the environment. Lung and nasal sinus cancers occurred in workers who were exposed to more than 10 mg nickel/m� as nickel compounds that were hard to dissolve (such as nickel subsulfide). Exposure to high levels of nickel compounds that dissolve easily in water (soluble) may also result in cancer when nickel compounds that are hard to dissolve (less soluble) are present, or when other chemicals that can produce cancer are present. The concentrations of soluble and less-soluble nickel compounds that were found to have produced cancers were 100,000 to 1 million times greater than the usual level of nickel in the air in the United States. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that nickel metal may reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen and nickel compounds are known human carcinogens. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that some nickel compounds are carcinogenic to humans and that metallic nickel may possibly be carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has determined that nickel refinery dust and nickel subsulfide are human carcinogens. These cancer classifications were based on studies of nickel workers and laboratory animals.
Lung inflammation and damage to the nasal cavity have been observed in animals exposed to nickel compounds. At high concentrations, the lung damage is severe enough to affect lung function. Long-term exposure to lower levels of a nickel compound that dissolves easily in water did not produce cancer in animals. Lung cancer developed in rats exposed for a long time to nickel compounds that do not dissolve easily in water.
Oral exposure of humans to high levels of soluble nickel compounds through the environment is extremely unlikely. Because humans have only rarely been exposed to high levels of nickel in water or food, much of our knowledge of the harmful effects of nickel is based on animal studies. Eating or drinking levels of nickel much greater than the levels normally found in food and water have been reported to produce lung disease in dogs and rats and to affect the stomach, blood, liver, kidneys, and immune system in rats and mice, as well as their reproduction and development.
Source: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=243&tid=44

too long

All these cos of the report containing the detection of the abundance of Ni-containing compound in Kaduna yesterday.

Hmmmm Op.Why can't you just be happy with the news of Nickel been found in Kaduna.Those who make use of nickel know more about the hazard than you.Stop being petty.Pls be happy for once in your lifetime.