Short postscript on lithium experimentation
Two commenters have reacted with horror to my previous post on the grounds that adding lithium to the water might hurt people. This possibility gives us even more reason to conduct the experiment with lithium tablets I described.
Firstly, remember that we’re only talking about levels of lithium that are well within the range of what is normally in tap water. That doesn’t prove it’s harmless- experimentation is needed, but it does put somewhat dramatic claims in perspective.
But here’s the crucial thing- that it could be harmful gives us a reason to conduct the experiment because if it turns out that lithium is psychologically harmful in ‘normal’ doses then we need to consider removing it from tap water.
For any given level of lithium, there are three possibilities:
A marginal increase in Lithium is a net good at that level, and a marginal decrease in lithium is a net bad at that level.
Marginal lithium addition or subtraction is neutral or close enough at that level.
A marginal increase in lithium is a net bad at that level, and a marginal decrease in lithium is a net good at that level.
If lithium is robustly psychoactive at tap water doses, then it is quite unlikely that option 2 is true in many places. We need to find out what the ideal level is (and it could be zero). We then need to consider the cost-effectiveness of modification. It’s magical thinking to believe that the current level, whatever it is, is necessarily correct, especially when the current level varies so much. Worries that lithium might be doing us harm give us twice as many reasons to investigate exactly what lithium is doing. Nature is not benign, it is capricious, and if lithium is shaping our lives, and shaping the lives of people in different areas differently, then we should step in to make sure we all get the benefits of the best level, whether that be lower or higher than it currently is in your area.
