Nickel and cancer?

HAL9000

hotpickups said:

This is the first time I heard of this warning on products. Anyone know about this too:-



Or is this the usual USA paranoia ?

I like the ‘tone’ bit at the bottom.

hotpickups

HAL9000 said:

hotpickups said:

This is the first time I heard of this warning on products. Anyone know about this too:-



Or is this the usual USA paranoia ?

I like the ‘tone’ bit at the bottom.

Ha ha me too. I wondered when someone was gonna spot that lol 

Jeremiah

Many UK coins and some Euros also contain nickel, and many types of stainless steel also contain it.

As far as I understand it, the main carcinogenic risk from nickel is from inhalation of nickel-containing dust or fumes, which is a significant risk for workers in the mining or processing industries but unlikely to be significant for people touching their pickups, strings or frets etc.

Cols

California loves to label anything that moves as being carcinogenic.

Inhalation of high concentrations of dust containing nickel compounds can cause lung and nasal cancer.  Good luck inhaling a pickup or a set of strings though.

It is a known contact allergen, so its use in the EU is prohibited in any product intended for direct and prolonged skin contact such as watch straps/cases, jewellery and clothes fastenings.  So far strings and bridges seem to have slipped under the radar.

Voxman

Right, no more listening to Nickelback albums then (- as if I needed an excuse! )

Cols

Voxman said:

Right, no more listening to Nickelback albums then (- as if I needed an excuse! )

That causes a loss of taste.

brucegill

Cols said:

Voxman said:

Right, no more listening to Nickelback albums then (- as if I needed an excuse! )

That causes a loss of taste.

Wis or lol. I just cant decide. 

hessodreamy

Ca are pretty overcautious with their carcinogen warnings. They also label coffee as a possible carcinogen. Are you going to give up your morning pick me up? Didn’t think so. 

I understand (with the coffee thing anyway) that they basically injected massive amounts of coffee into mice and they got cancer. So somewhere between the scientists and the lawmakers ‘contains something which in ridiculous doses gives mice cancer’ becomes ‘may cause cancer’ despite there being zero evidence of an effect in humans at normal doses (afaik). 

It’s probably the same with the nickel. Or at least I know to take it with a pinch of salt. 

Voxman

Unfortunately we now live in a litigation terrified and babying world where anything and everything can cause cancer, and everything might contain nuts. Guitars certainly do! 

HAL9000

hessodreamy said:

...at least I know to take it with a pinch of salt. 

...recognised by the state of California as a potentially carcinogenic

english_bob

Without disagreeing that California's cancer risk labelling laws might be a touch OTT, there is known to be a link between nickel and some forms of cancer.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/nickel

https://oem.bmj.com/content/73/Suppl_1/A42.2

Although it seems it's far riskier to inhale particles of nickel in enviroments where metal is being cut, ground etc than it is to play guitars with AlNiCo pickups.

Fun fact: Eddie Van Halen reckoned his throat cancer was caused by putting metal picks in his mouth. 

Voxman

HAL9000 said:

hessodreamy said:

...at least I know to take it with a pinch of salt. 

...recognised by the state of California as a potentially carcinogenic

And let's not forget, bad for heart and arteries.

Health warning...being a member of the fretboard can cause repetitive strain injury, eye strain, and headaches, and mobile phones can give you cancer.

And in these difficult Covid times, please be sure to keep social distancing and keep your screen at least 2m away from you at all times! 

hotpickups

Voxman said:

HAL9000 said:

hessodreamy said:

...at least I know to take it with a pinch of salt. 

...recognised by the state of California as a potentially carcinogenic

And let's not forget, bad for heart and arteries. And being a member of the fretboard can cause repetitive strain injury, eye strain, and headaches, and mobile phones can give you cancer.

And in these difficult Covid times, please be sure to keep social distancing and keep your screen at least 2m away from you at all times! 

We’re so doomed aren’t we lol 

Kittyfrisk

Fun fact: Eddie Van Halen reckoned his throat cancer was caused by putting metal picks in his mouth. 

Not verifiable at all, but... 'shrug'.

From Wikipedia
' Van Halen struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse. He began smoking and drinking at the age of 12, and he stated that he eventually needed alcohol to function.[79] He entered rehabilitation in 2007,[80] and later shared in an interview that he had been sober since 2008.[79]

Suffering from lingering injuries from past, high-risk, acrobatic stage performances and crashes, Van Halen underwent hip replacement surgery in 1999, after his chronic avascular necrosis, with which he was diagnosed in 1995, became unbearable.[81] He began receiving treatment for tongue cancer in 2000. The subsequent surgery removed roughly a third of his tongue. He was declared cancer-free in 2002.[82] He blamed the tongue cancer on his habit of holding guitar picks in his mouth, stating in 2015: "I used metal picks – they're brass and copper – which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer. ... I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it's possible."[82]

hotpickups

Kittyfrisk said:

Fun fact: Eddie Van Halen reckoned his throat cancer was caused by putting metal picks in his mouth. 

Not verifiable at all, but... 'shrug'.

From Wikipedia
' Van Halen struggled with alcoholism and drug abuse. He began smoking and drinking at the age of 12, and he stated that he eventually needed alcohol to function.[79] He entered rehabilitation in 2007,[80] and later shared in an interview that he had been sober since 2008.[79]

Suffering from lingering injuries from past, high-risk, acrobatic stage performances and crashes, Van Halen underwent hip replacement surgery in 1999, after his chronic avascular necrosis, with which he was diagnosed in 1995, became unbearable.[81] He began receiving treatment for tongue cancer in 2000. The subsequent surgery removed roughly a third of his tongue. He was declared cancer-free in 2002.[82] He blamed the tongue cancer on his habit of holding guitar picks in his mouth, stating in 2015: "I used metal picks – they're brass and copper – which I always held in my mouth, in the exact place where I got the tongue cancer. ... I mean, I was smoking and doing a lot of drugs and a lot of everything. But at the same time, my lungs are totally clear. This is just my own theory, but the doctors say it's possible."[82]

Having had loads of cancer related deaths in my family the route cause to throat, tongue cancer imo is smoking. Just don’t do it. Although it’s a good rock idol story about dying for having guitar picks in ones mouth 

english_bob

Kittyfrisk said:

Fun fact: Eddie Van Halen reckoned his throat cancer was caused by putting metal picks in his mouth. 

Not verifiable at all, but... 'shrug'

I'm not saying I find it remotely plausible, particularly for a guy who chain smoked for decades and put away as much booze as he did. Just from glancing at the studies it looks like it's people who spent lifetimes in metalworking who need to worry about nickel related cancers, not people who put guitar picks in their mouths.

Adey

Apparently life also causes death in the end....

Kittyfrisk

Adey said:

Apparently life also causes death in the end....

Gosh...!!  De Profundis  

Voxman

I've come to the conclusion that there are only 2 certainties in life....death, and taxes.  

And I'm not even 100% sure about the first one!!  

Sassafras

hessodreamy said:

Ca are pretty overcautious with their carcinogen warnings. They also label coffee as a possible carcinogen. Are you going to give up your morning pick me up? Didn’t think so. 

I understand (with the coffee thing anyway) that they basically injected massive amounts of coffee into mice and they got cancer. So somewhere between the scientists and the lawmakers ‘contains something which in ridiculous doses gives mice cancer’ becomes ‘may cause cancer’ despite there being zero evidence of an effect in humans at normal doses (afaik). 

It’s probably the same with the nickel. Or at least I know to take it with a pinch of salt. 

How do they know it was the coffee that caused the cancer?
It could've been the nickel in the hypodermic needles used to inject the mice.