The anti-fluoride movement has opened up a new front in the Tweed, with a new online campaign to stop adding the chemical to the shire’s water supply.

Tweed Shire Council has been fluoridating its water supply for 40 years, with state health authorities claiming it prevents tooth decay and cavities in children.

The outlying villages of Uki and Tyalgum have their own water supplies (tank or reservoir) which are not dosed with fluoride.

In neighbouring Byron shire, a strong anti-fluoride movement has prevented the practice taking hold there, while other north coast shires, such as Lismore and Ballina, have recently established fluoride dosing plants for their water supplies, managed by Rous Water.

But a campaign to stop the chemical dosing in those shires is picking up momentum.

The ‘Fluoride Free Tweed’ campaign was launched two weeks ago on Facebook, with a stated aim to ‘Help End the Practice of Fluoridation in the Tweed Shire water supply’.

The group invites visitors to its site to sign a petition which states:

We the community and residents of the Tweed Shire want the Tweed Shire Council to remove the fluoride from the Tweed Shire water supply. ?The fluoride added to our water supply is a toxic by-product from the fertilizer industry and there’s no doubt about it: this fluoride should not be ingested. We are being exposed to a toxic drug-like substance every time we take a sip. This is reckless, as we cannot control the dose ingested, or who receives it, and there’s no medical supervision. Water fluoridation clearly violates our right to informed consent as far as medical decisions go, and it may also be making future generations less intelligent across the board. Let’s join together to stop the fluoridation poisoning of our water supply in the Tweed Shire.

The group also includes on its site a list of 300 communities from around the world who have rejected water fluoridation since 1990.

Tweed Heads campaigner Larni Gryphon, who launched the protest, told local media fluoride was a ‘poison’ and many people saw it as ‘forced medication’.

Ms Gryphon said one problem with fluoridated water was that people who drank more water to quench thirst would ingest a much larger dose of the chemical, outweighing its so-called benefits.

Opponents of fluoride dosing say sugary foods and soft drinks were the real culprits in tooth decay in children, and if people wanted to use the chemical, they could buy fluoride tablets to add to drinking water or use toothpaste with added fluoride.

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