Tom Eagar's daughter — metal allergy

First of all, it's plated nickel, not solid nickel. They're putting a nickel flash on there. The reason is that nickel electroplates better than any other metal in the world. If you want to get a good gold plate, you put a nickel flash underneath it, because aluminum and steel have these precipitates and carbides — you can lay down pure nickel, it's a beautiful material to electroplate something else on top of. Now, nickel is a little bit of a problem because it can be toxic. It is toxic in the human body, and some people are actually allergic to it. I have a daughter who's even allergic to gold and platinum. She doesn't have pierced ears. She always wanted pierced ears when she was a teenager. She got pierced ears, that lasted for about two weeks. And even platinum — some people can't tolerate silver, can tolerate gold, but if you can't tolerate gold you go to platinum. My daughter — we can't even tolerate platinum, as you know, in her skin.