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EV’s Lithium and Me

How the move to low-emission vehicles is affecting some marginalized people who have mental illness

October 31, 2024

Writing about electric cars is just weird, especially if you’re like me.  

You see, for the last 12 years, I have relied on 1,200 milligrams of lithium carbonate per day to stabilize my mood. I have a history of bipolar affective disorder, with psychosis, a very serious mental illness. Perhaps inconveniently then, the lithium I’ve depended on for several years is the same lithium used in lithium-ion batteries — the ones in all electric cars. 

Recently, my psychiatrist phoned me to say that the supply of medical lithium was running out. A little research shows that this is a concern. 

Lithium is often called the “white gold” of clean energy, with 60 per cent of the global supply  currently being mined for battery applications — a number that is projected to jump to 95 per cent by 2030.  

My pharmacy was able to find another source, but there remains the problem of car companies signing large contracts for lithium, which may squeeze out the pharmaceutical companies. 

Lithium carbonate is an inorganic compound. This white salt is widely used in processing metal oxides, but its main use is as a precursor compound used in lithium-ion batteries. Lithium carbonate has been used as medicine since the 1800s, but it was John Cade who discovered the anti-manic effects of lithium ions in 1948. This finding led to its use as a psychiatric medication to treat mania, the elevated phase of bipolar disorder. Cade speculated that mania was caused by a deficiency in lithium, and in 1949, he published his findings in the Medical Journal of Australia. 

Because lithium carbonate is not a patented drug, the pharmaceutical companies likely make a small profit on it. That doesn’t mean that lithium, as a medicine, is not worth fighting for. As a pharmacist told me in 2012, lithium works very well. Mental health advocates should be aware of this issue and hold car companies’ feet to the fire if patients in need of lithium, particularly those who are marginalized, are being left out. 

There are other weird things about electric cars. I mean “weird” if you think EVs are going to save us from ourselves. How about this, from Adam Watrous in the National Post: 

“It takes five times the amount of oil to build an EV than it does to build a conventional gas-powered vehicle. In order to offset the difference, a person must drive an EV 120,000 kms using the electrical grid.” 

 Strong words from a rich investor. The same National Post article  notes that batteries only last eight years, requiring even more carbon emissions (and more lithium) to build a new battery. 

Almost four tonnes of CO2 are released during the production of a single electric car, and in order to break even, the vehicle must be used for at least eight years to offset the initial emissions by 0.5 tonnes of prevented emissions annually. 

In order to reach its carbon reduction targets, the government of Canada assumes the following: 60 per cent of the 1.8 million cars and light trucks sold in 2030 must be electric (zero-emission vehicles). Today, electric cars have settled in at nearly 12 per cent of new car sales in Canada. In B.C., it’s just over 20 per cent, where the government has set a target of 90 per cent of vehicle sales being electric by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035. 

Critics argue the industry has experienced a catastrophic failure to make EVs affordable. Compared with conventional fuel-powered vehicles, they are expensive to buy and costly to maintain. They don’t work as well in cold weather. In the week I finished this article, Ford Motor Company reported a loss of $1 billion in its electric car division. 

Which brings us back to lithium and me. As demand for low-emission vehicles revs up, some reports are predicting a worldwide shortage of lithium as early as 2025. 

My doctor and pharmacist are on alert, knowing that the car industry is not thinking of marginalized patients with mental illness when it places orders for lithium. 

This is only one example of how industry focuses on the wealthier members of society at the expense of the poor. In addition to a public health emergency, this has the potential to be a public relations disaster for companies such as Tesla, which still sell “freedom” to their customers while diverting people like me to a different medication, or no medication at all.   

James Witwicki has been living in the Downtown Eastside for more than 14 years. He is a prolific writer and stays active in the community through his volunteer work at Strathcona Vineyard Church and works as a copy editor for Megaphone magazine as part of The Shift peer newsroom. 

Published in Megaphone magazine on November 1, 2024