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Metal Allergy: Chromium

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Metal Allergy

Abstract

Allergic contact dermatitis to chromium (Cr) is one of the most common and most severe metal allergies. Chromium-sensitized persons need to strictly avoid contact with chromium, which is a difficult task due to its main sources being nonmetals and non-labeled occupational or everyday life products. Regulations, work hygiene, and the decrease of hexavalent chromium sources can be effective measures to reduce the prevalence of allergic contact dermatitis. There are no inexpensive and simple analytical tools available that can detect released chromium with sufficient sensitivity to detect potential sources that should be avoided. Hexavalent chromium has significantly higher skin and cell penetration rates compared with trivalent chromium. Hexavalent chromium is therefore generally considered the more potent allergen compared with trivalent chromium. Anionic trivalent chromium species have the highest skin penetration rates among trivalent chromium species. The chromium release chemistry from potential sources, the chromium oxidation state and chemical form, skin penetration, and skin reactions depend all largely on pH and the presence of complexing and reducing species. Therefore, some environments and sources, especially alkaline ones, should be particularly avoided. A trivalent chromium-protein conjugate is the recognized antigen by cutaneous dendritic cells. Patch testing with potassium dichromate is the main diagnostic tool, but causes a relatively high percentage of irritant or doubtful reactions. Hypersensitivity to chromium released from metallic implants is rarer compared with allergic contact dermatitis. Allergic asthma to chromium has been reported for a few occupations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17177, Stockholm, Sweden

    Yolanda S. Hedberg

  2. Division of Surface and Corrosion Science, Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Drottning Kristinas Väg 51, SE-10044, Stockholm, Sweden

    Yolanda S. Hedberg

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  1. Yolanda S. Hedberg
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Redwood City, CA, USA

    Jennifer K Chen

  2. Department of Dermatology and Allergy Herlev and Gentofte Hospital University of Copenhagen, Hellerup, Denmark

    Jacob P. Thyssen

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Hedberg, Y.S. (2018). Metal Allergy: Chromium. In: Chen, J., Thyssen, J. (eds) Metal Allergy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58503-1_27

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