Another local person claims Apple Watch caused arm reaction

CHARLOTTE — Tiffany McGinnis calls her Apple Watch 6 her lifeline. “I can see when my kids are texting me while I’m busy,” she said.

But she says that, about two weeks ago, she “felt just this strange feeling so I loosened up the band a little bit, kept working, and then, it just started hurting.”

She told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke her wrist was irritated and showed him. “I just kind of want people to know … it’s really scary,” she said.

In September, Ann Bracey told Stoogenke she was messing with her hummingbird feeder and felt her wrist burning. She thought maybe an insect got trapped under the watch and stung her.

“It hurt. It really hurt. And I thought to myself, “Owwww, I’ve got a bee under the watch,” she told Stoogenke. “The next morning, I woke up, only to scream and say, ‘Oh me, because the burn, it had gotten huge. Three inches.’

In October, Tiana Adams said she felt something on her arm one day, under her Apple Watch band. “My skin was so irritated. It was red. It looked like it was blistered,” she told Stoogenke. “As it started healing, it started chafing and burning and itching.”

Stoogenke checked Consumer Product Safety Commission records and found 18 complaints like theirs. People claimed their Apple Watches caused “burns and parts of skin to peel away,” a “circular red patch,” “severe skin redness,” an “itchy, dry rash,” “skin irritation,” “burning,” “blisters,” and the list goes on.

Stoogenke also came across other posts about this issue, like on an Apple forum. A person claimed one of the watches caused “red marks” that looked like “burns.”

WABC in New York ran a news report. It says a woman claimed her Apple Watch heated up, burning her wrist. Apple said it tested the watch and that “it had not reached a temperature which would have caused any injury.” The company still gave the woman a full refund.

Apple’s website lists the materials in its watches and bands. It doesn’t say anything about “burns,” but it does mention “potential skin sensitivities” and that a “small number” of people “experience reactions to certain materials,” which the company says could be due to allergies, environmental factors, or extended exposure to irritants, like soap or sweat.

Apple says on its website to:

• Keep your skin clean and dry.
• Be careful switching to bands Apple didn’t make.
• Make sure the band isn’t too tight or too loose.

Apple didn’t give any statement on the record for Stoogenke’s first two news reports. He told the company about this latest example. Apple asked him for more information, but didn’t comment in time for this report.

Dr. Steven Feldman is a dermatologist with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem.  During one of the initial news reports, he told Stoogenke one of his patients had a “skin rash following use of an Apple Watch.”

He and a medical student wrote a paper about it.  They pointed out:

• Many watches—including Apple ones—contain nickel, which “is associated with allergic” reactions.
• Customers “may wear smart watches tighter due to the presence of heart rate sensors.”
• The watch bands are “more likely to be made of synthetic polymers” with more “friction.”

But Dr. Feldman thinks reactions are very rare. “I wouldn’t even worry about this. I think it’s such an uncommon phenomena, I wouldn’t pay it any mind when I was deciding what kind of watch to buy,” he said.

No matter what brand you buy, if you have sensitive skin:

• You may want to check what’s in it. After all, it’s up against your skin all day.
• If you think something’s wrong with it, the company may ask you to give it back for testing. You can say no. You may want to have it tested yourself. Once you hand it over, you may not get it back.

[WATCH BELOW: Action 9: More people claim Apple Watch caused burns, injuries]

Action 9: More people claim Apple Watch caused burns, injuries

©2021 Cox Media Group