How our drinking water could help prevent suicide
In this article it is explained that lithium could be helpful to prevent suicides all around the United States. Because lithium is a natural ingredient found almost anywhere in the the Earth’s crust, and is what is typically prescribed to mentally ill people and is already found in water, scientists want to know if it could potentially prevent suicides. The article explained that, three out of four studies found that lithium could be helpful for people that suffer from bipolar disease, and depression by adding it to the tap water.
These studies found that suicide could be prevented by adding a small doses of lithium which would not be significantly noticed, and it would help people.
The author wants to know why it has not been done yet. There are people that might find this ethically wrong because they would need to consent to this process. They also argue that back in the day when they started adding fluoride to our water, which made out teeth stronger by 25% of what they used to be, people threw a fit about it not being okay. The author believes that this could be the case once again if this happens.
The article also says that there are many people that see no correlation between lithium being in water and preventing suicides.
(I think this is an interesting read, because I had no idea what lithium was used for and if it was dangerous or not. The article says that it is not dangerous if it is taken in small dosages. The article also is pretty much dealing with studies , science, facts and numbers which is what we are talking about in class. I might use this article to work for my news package story.
I think it might not be be a bad idea, but there needs to be more research done, because we don’t want anyone dying or getting sick because of this. If it is for the greatest good for people that suffer from mental illness, then I said do it, but just as long as we know more information about it.)
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/24/18010592/future-perfect-podcast-lithium-drinking-water-suicide
Week Ten will do. Next week, Week Eleven.
I never considered that lithium the drug was the same lithium that is in batteries. That doesn’t seem right.
Lithium is also a limited resource, and until we find an alternative battery source, I don’t think adding it to water is going to get a lot of traction.
If you use this as a news story, you might get comments from a chemistry or psych professor. Do they think this idea will work?