Kathy my Mom also has very sensitive skin and can't wear some jewelry; she was told that the reason Gold jewelry causes allergy is because of the Nickel in the gold.
Gold of any karat will contain nickel like 14K, 18K etc. However the less the karat value the higher the nickel content and so more problems therefore, so it is always preferable especially if you are sensitive to wear high karat gold jewelry. There a some extremely sensitive skin types and as soon as the skin comes in direct contact with nickel it immediately results in allergy. Hot weather makes the reaction even worse.
Allergy-prone skin types skins may also react to the metal - Silver, because in the same way as Gold, the metal Silver is also mixed with Nickel and Copper to attain hardness and durability required to make the jewelry items. One alternative to gold and silver jewelry is nickel-free designer costume jewelry. Merry
Rating
Allergic to Gold by: Anonymous
this post caught my eye because although I love jewelry - a lot of jewelry even GOLD jewelry, I can't wear as it gives me an annoying skin allergy. The allergy seems to be worse in summer.
Yikes, I haven't ever heard about gold being radioactive! There doesn't seem to be that much public awareness in connection to allergies and metal toxicity of jewelry, so I have bookmarked this page and will be interested to hear what others have to say about allergies to gold and other metals. Kathy.