Anti-fluoride campaigners are preparing to go to war for the fourth time in as many decades in a bid to keep Staffordshire’s water supplies free of the chemical.

Stafford’s Protect Our Water campaign plans to fight proposed Government changes to the Water Bill which would force companies to add fluoride to public supplies if told to do so by health authorities.

Fluoride has long been added to water as experts say it helps keep teeth strong.

Campaign chairman Ray Oldacre says together with the National Pure Water Association they have beaten the Government, health officials and industry spokesmen on three occasions.

“We are confident we shall do so again thanks to the common sense of the Stafford people,” he adds.

“When they realise that our health officials wish to medicate them with an industrial waste which has never been tested by the Medicines and Health Related Products Agency then they will reject this proposal.”

Mr Oldacre claims that because certain fluoride additives to water have not been tested then their introduction to supplies is illegal as well as wrong.

“The Government will therefore be acting illegally,” adds Mr Oldacre.

“We firmly believe that people should have the right to choose what medication they absorb and that this should be monitored by medical experts.

“If people want to administer fluoride to their children they can do so through toothpastes, supplements and so on.

“To give this toxin to people in uncontrolled doses without supervision is highly irresponsible.”

Mr Oldacre says figures show that children in Birmingham have twice as much tooth decay as those in Stafford, despite Birmingham’s water having had fluoride for 40 years.

“We appeal to Stafford people to back us again or they will be drinking poisoned water soon.”