posted 09-11-2003 05:32 PM
Well.. I hope they're not dumping tons of this stuff in the atmosphere... and I hope none of it is reaching us here on terra firma. Looks like this earth is getting bathed daily in all kinds of metals.I found this information about Lithium in my Guide to the Elements book... Lithium is a metal, an extremely reactive one. It reacts vigoruously with water, for example, to produce hydrogen gas, and with oxygen to form lithium oxide....
I bet some folks here didn't know about this other use of lithium.. I got this from my book as well.
In it's purified form, lithium carbonate has recently been used to treat patients with the severe mental illness known as bipolar disorder. More than 3 million prescriptions for this compound are filled yearly to help patients with this disorder. The role of lithium carbonate in the complex chemical reactions that determine brain dysfunction is not known but it is thought to affect the way in which brain cells respond to certain hormones and to the complex biological molecules known as neurotransmitters, which assist the transmission of messages along nerve networks and can gratly affect moods and behavior.
Since I have family that take medicine containing lithium I can tell you right now, it helps to keep them from going insane.. It keeps their brains functioning so they're able to live a somewhat normal life. There is a delicate balance that has to be acheived to maintain normalcy in these individuals... if they get the wrong dose of medicine it throws them out of wack. Since the introduction of Lithium quite a few insane asylums have been cleared of their residents due to the miraculous effects of this medicine.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Catnip57 on 09-11-2003]