Just when you thought BlackBerry couldn’t get any more negative press, think again. The Waterloo company is struggling to keep itself in business, and now it seems to have a problem with people being literally allergic to its phones. According to the researchers over at American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, BlackBerries are being produced with two different types of allergens: cobalt and nickel. The research group found that one-third of BlackBerries had nickel. Surprisingly, flip-phone models carried the most nickel at 91 percent, while 52 percent of phones had cobalt. iPhones and Android phones, by comparison, didn’t seem to have either allergen.
Apparently, these two allergens carried in BlackBerry phones are common. 17 percent of women and 3 percent of men get itching and swelling in their jaw line, ears, and cheeks when they come into contact with cobalt and nickel. That being said, these two allergens are found in many things beside BlackBerries. For instance, you can find both allergens in many common things such as jewelry, belt buckles, buttons, snaps, zippers, and utensils. So there should be no real concern here. Trust, if you’re ditching your BlackBerry, chances are it’ll have nothing to do with how much nickel it packs.