FLINT –  If you live in the City of Flint, you might be getting a knock at your door this week.

Community activists are pounding the pavement, pushing a cause that could change the make up of Flint’s water. They want the water department to stop adding fluoride to Flint’s water.

Fluoride is the chemical added to most drinking water in the U.S. and in Mid-Michigan. It’s said to help keep teeth and gums healthy.

Adam Gerics is a community activist in Flint and the spokesperson for the movement that is trying to get 750 or more signatures on a petition.

The idea to get rid of fluoride was suggested a couple months ago when a colleague of famous water activist Erin Brockovich was in Flint.

Gerics said Bob Bowcock said fluoride can be harmful to your health and can cause deterioration to aging pipes in the water system.

According to the Centers of Disease Control, in the 1960’s, communities all over the country started adding fluoride to their water to promote healthy teeth and gums.

Gerics and his supporters say it’s unnecessary.

If he is successful with this petition, he said it would be a big step for the water activists who have been protesting for better quality water for months.

“You can picket all you want, you can protest all you want, but unless you actively participate, in the end, if you’re not actually participating, nothing is going to happen,” Gerics said.

If they get enough signatures, Flint City Council will vote to get the fluoride issue on the November ballot. If it passes through city council, voters will decide whether the water department should continue adding fluoride.

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