In new research, a team has explored how this ion accumulates in a common Southern crustacean, the crawfish, with implications for the environment and public health.
"As aquatic organisms, crawfish can take up large amounts of lithium dissolved in water. Because other creatures -- including people -- eat crawfish, looking at them allows us to see how lithium moves through the food chain, and potentially into us," says Joseph Kazery, a professor of biology. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends discarding lithium-ion batteries at dedicated collection points, Kazery says they often end up in landfills. Soaring demand along with lax disposal practices suggests lithium is on the verge of becoming a significant environmental contaminant, he says.reflect local lithium contamination and could serve as powerful bioindicators of its presence in an environment.
Doubert also found that 27.5% of the lithium he fed them had passed from the animals' GI tracts into other tissues. Animals further up the food chain can accumulate higher levels of toxic substances if they eat contaminated prey, so lithium will likely become more concentrated in the predators of crawfish. The researchers expect the high rate of absorption Doubert saw to exacerbate this accumulation in both humans and the other animals that eat crawfish.
"A lot of people think the use of lithium-ion batteries is a good thing right now, but it is important to explore the effects that may be coming down the road," Doubert says.
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