People Are Literally Allergic To BlackBerry Phones

Like, an actual itching allergy. But, come on, there are lots of other reasons to dump BlackBerry.

By Colin Lecher Posted 11.09.2012 at 11:00 am 12 Comments

BlackBerry Wikimedia Commons

BlackBerry has been having a rough go of it lately, slowly sliding into irrelevance as Android and iPhone corner the market. Now add one more nail to that coffin: a study says that people are allergic to BlackBerry phones. As in, an actual itch-inducing allergy. As in, to a phone.

The (strange, silly-sounding) study is being presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Researchers looked at phones for two allergens, cobalt and nickel; about a third of BlackBerries had nickel, they found. The flip-phone models were worse: about 91 percent of those had nickel and 52 percent had cobalt. iPhones and Android phones, by comparison, didn't seem to have either allergen.

Researchers point out that this is a common allergy; about 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. But, come on, there's a lot of nickel out there, and it's not just in phones. These phones (especially the flip phones) have also been around for a while now without causing a dry skin pandemic. There are so many other good reasons for people to switch to iPhone or Android!

[EurekAlert]

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12 Comments

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haywall

11/09/12 at 11:26 am

Please use an editor: "BlackBerry has been having a rough go of a lately..."

Should it say "as of lately" and not "of a lately"?

Didn't you learn in school to be proud of any work you put your name on?

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Robot

11/09/12 at 11:48 am

I like black berry, simply because they are different. "Different is very cool-beans!" ;)

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gizmowiz

11/09/12 at 12:15 pm

I'm allergic to portrait mode myself......

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Leviathan088

11/09/12 at 12:40 pm

Haywall should not throw stones in a glass house. You quoted this: "BlackBerry has been having a rough go of a lately..."

If you care to read it, it clearly said: "BlackBerry has been having a rough go of it lately..."

You made up an error just so you could tear it down.

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Aldrons Last Hope

11/09/12 at 12:49 pm

I guess RIM doesn’t pay for ad space in popsci. All the bogus articles praising Android and iPhones, and the one article you write about Black Berry is negative.

Fact remains Black Berry is the go to gadget for business.

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Blarg_King

11/09/12 at 12:55 pm

Haha this actually explains why my right ear was always red and itchy when I had a blackberry. Even more glad I got rid of that piece of crap.

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phoenixamaranth

11/09/12 at 1:29 pm

We're phasing blackberry out at my company and replacing with Android and Iphones, so yeah, this article is correct. Blackberry's are dead. No one wants them anymore.

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VecTron

11/09/12 at 2:26 pm

And, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving company.

Burn in hell, Jim Balsillie. (Ex ceo of blackberry)

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Robot

11/09/12 at 3:39 pm

I have several friends that use Black Berry and they enjoy them very much. And if it puts a thorn in the sides of the competition, that is wonderful for capitalism and the general market. YEA!

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Mukuro Holmes

11/09/12 at 5:39 pm

I own a Blackberry playbook. While it is absolutely terrible compared to my grandpa's iPad, it is decent for doing basic tasks like surfing the net or reading an e-book. However, in a world where a tablet's speed, efficiency, and versatility makes it king, my tablet probably won't be able to keep up. With this new development, I'm not surprised if RIM stocks plummet. Blackberry's also have another health-related issue: Blackberry thumb. Google it. I'm not sure if it's even possible to have blackberry thumb with touchscreens, so this is another reason why RIM needs to desperately catch up.

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killerT

11/10/12 at 11:22 am

From your comments I learned that Blackberry is mostly used by companies who are resistant to change, they have been reduced to a "thorn in the side" competitor
And you cant even give them away without the recipients complaining.

I never saw the point of a Blackberry.
As I understand, it sends text messages over the internet.
Something that any phone since 1999 is capable of doing.
I used to have MSN forward my email to my phone in those days, because my phone had its own email address.
Then the phone company pulled the plug unless you pay them extra for something called a "data plan".

So Blackberry was always just a very expensive downgrade sold to people who didn't know any better.

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African Rover

11/11/12 at 5:17 am

There might well be cobalt and nickel in phones, but do you actually come into contact with them unless you dismantle the phone? I think the article is a spoof.