Over the years, I’ve been working with variety of media including freshwater and saltwater pearls, and I’ve never had a client who was allergic to pearls yet.

Having said that I know people can be allergic to calcium carbonate, which the pearls are made up of. Calcium carbonate, essentially calcium salt, is found in the Calcium supplements that anyone can buy over the counter at any drug or health store. Allergy to Calcium Carbonate is very rare. Common side effects include: skin rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, or tongue, confusion or irritability, headache, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and feeling unusually weak or tired.

For the most part people are allergic to Calcium Carbonate when digested. Unlike pearl jewelry calcium supplements are taken orally. However, humans have a habit of testing authenticity of pearls by running them in between lips or teeth.

Existence of pearl allergy seems highly probable.

People who are allergic to shellfish are actually allergic to the proteinProteinA naturally occurring complex organic substance present in relatively high amounts in meats, fish, eggs, cheese, legumes. Made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, and sometimes sulfur and phosphorus.
called Tropomyosin, which is found in the muscle part of the shellfish, and not the seashell part. Tropomyosin is responsible for the acting mechanics, like muscle contraction. While Calcium Carbonate is what the sea shell part of the marine creature is made up of, and so is the mollusk byproduct - pearl.

Pearls don't contain any Tropomyosin, mostly they are made up of Calcium Carbonate. Therefore if a person is allergic to shellfish food, it doesn't mean he or she has to be allergic to pearls. Specifically in this case, as they are completely two different allergies. Tropomyosin shellfish food allergy is quite common, about 2 percent of adults in America have it. Calcium Carbonate allergy is extremely rare.

However, people who have one allergy, often develop other allergies through life.

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