The title of a recent paper caught my eye, “Potential environmental and human health impacts of rechargeable lithium batteries in electronic waste” (Kang, D.H.P., et al., 2013. Environ. Sci. Technol., 47(10):5495–5503). It’s about the potential hazardous nature of some of the heavy elements present in lithium-ion and lithium-poly batteries, which includes lead, chromium, cobalt, copper, nickel, thallium, and silver, if they leach into our water resources. But I was actually more interested in lithium, which reminded me of an article I read a few years ago about how elevated levels of lithium in our drinking water might actually be a positive thing.

In 1990, a paper titled “Lithium in drinking water and the incidences of crimes, suicides, and arrests related to drug addictions” was published (Schrauzer G.N., and K.P. Shrestha, Biol Trace Elem Res. 25(2):105-113). The researchers examined ten years’ worth of data from 27 counties in Texas, and reported that “the incidence rates of suicide, homicide, and rape are significantly higher in counties whose drinking water supplies contain little or no lithium than in counties with water lithium levels ranging from 70-170 micrograms/L.” Researchers in Japan and Austria have reported similar findings, that areas with naturally elevated levels of lithium had lower incidences of suicide (e.g., Kapusta N.D., et al., 2011. Lithium in drinking water and suicide mortality. British J. Psychiatry 198(5):346-350).

Such studies have prompted some people to propose adding lithium to our drinking water, much as we add fluoride to water to inhibit tooth decay. As you probably know, lithium is used to treat bipolar disorder. The thinking is that, over a lifetime, increased lithium in drinking water “makes the brain more happy,” as one doctor put it. The levels they’re talking about would be much lower than the therapeutic doses prescribed to patients with bipolar disorder.

There isn’t a great deal of data on lithium in groundwater, it’s not routinely analyzed and concentrations are often below instrument detection limits. The USGS recently published a report of trace elements in groundwater in the U.S. which included a map showing lithium concentrations in about a dozen aquifers. Highest concentrations were found in the Texan Panhandle (part of the High Plains Aquifer) and an unconsolidated sand stream valley aquifer in Wyoming. They stated that concentrations were generally greater in unconsolidated sand and gravel aquifers than in any other aquifer groups.

So what do you think? A potential widespread benefit for society? Or dangerous government overreach, compulsory “mass medication”? I have to say, I need to see a lot more data and research before I’m convinced that there’s a direct causal link between increased lithium and less violent behavior. Seems to me there are a huge number of variables that need to accounted for.