Ummm, Nickel is not an alloy that is used in cheap commercial aluminum. Nickel is used mostly in ferrous alloys. There may be nickel in your laptop, hard drive parts, magnets, batteries, screws, and such, but the case itself contains no nickel. The dye used in the anodizing process may contain trace amounts of nickel. Kinda hard to know for sure. But from what I've read, there are international exposure limits on nickel. It wouldn't make sense for Apple to coat your lappy in a toxic substance.
I developped a nickel allergy about 4 years ago. It was originally due to the frames of my glasses and only manifested as some minor exzema between my eyebrows. So i started wearing plastic frames.
That same year i bought a 15" MacBook Pro. I used it until early 2010, by then my hands looked like a leper's, bleeding and with soars all over them.
As soon as i stopped touching the keyboard, my hands healed.
This is also a problem with cell phones, iphones, etc (apparently only Nokia has gone 100% nickel-free).
I will not buy another MBP, until Mac offers nickel-free options.
BTW, I've seen about 4 dermathologists, and 2 allergy specialists.
Because of the severity of my rash, i was put on prednisone, with doses that started at 50 mg a day and are now at 7.5 mg every other day. I was also prescribed clobetazol cream on my hands and that has helped.
It has cost me a lot of money in treatments.
Apparently the percentage of people developping this type of allergies is increasing, because companies didn't think about the overexposure to metals caused by their products.
In Europe it is now forbidden to have high levels of free nickel in the materials that make up the surface of cell phones and other products.
