UKCAF website

From small beginnings to a National Organisation

UKCAF has a long and successful history of opposing State-mandated water fluoridation. In 1988 the North West Regional Health Authority proposed to fluoridate an area from Carlisle in the north down to High Peak in Derbyshire. Almost all Local Authorities in the region opposed fluoridation, but even though the the 21 District Health Authorities consulted the Councils, they ignored local objections and asked the Regional Health Authority to request North West Water to fluoridate.

Angered by this refusal to accept public opposition to fluoridation, 28 out of 31 Local Authorities joined together to form the North West Councils Against Fluoridation, and registered their objections with North West Water. In response, in 1992 North West Water accepted that the opinions of the Councils represented the views of the majority of its customers, and refused to agree to the Health Authority's request to fluoridate.

In 1996, 25 out of 26 Councils in Northern Ireland opposed a Government move to fluoridate the Province. They convened the Northern Ireland Councils Against Fluoridation, and asked the NWCAF to represent their views by lobbying in Parliament. As a result of NWCAF activities, the Province remained free of fluoridation, but recently moves have again been made by Central Government to attempt to impose the practice.

In 2004 the Member Councils of NWCAF decided to extend the scope of the organisation to cover the whole country, and UK Councils Against Fluoridation was formed. Currently, UKCAF has two joint chairmen, Paul Clein (formerly of Liverpool City Council) and Prof. John Whitelegg (formerly of Lancaster City Council). We also have three Information Officers who liaise with the public in different areas of the country, whilst its day-to-day operations are run by Liz Vaughan and Doug Cross. UKCAF is a Limited Company, and operates from Ulverston, Cumbria.

The future - building a strong framework for local control and collaboration

As organisations subject to local election it is the Local Authorities, and not the government’s new super-QANGO Public Health England, that have the moral mandate to represent their communities' interests and wishes. Where it is clear that political pressures, and not sound science, are influencing decisions on public health, as in the case of fluoridation, Local Authorities should take immediate and effective action to counter the propaganda and spin emanating from unethical and politically motivated health 'initiatives'.

UKCAF is now renewing its activities with the help of Local Authorities, Professional Institutions and Unions, to mount a well-planned and decisive opposition to protect the public and their own members from the medical and legal liabilities of this form of unethical and illegal medication. We provide an informed forum for examination of the issues raised by fluoridation, and for the planning and execution of nation-wide challenges to the health sector and its fanatical fluoridation proponents.

Our resources.

We have long-established and strong working links with independent and reputable experts in medical toxicology, environmental chemistry, and law, as well as with concerned Members of Parliament and the House of Lords,

on whom we can rely for impartial and constructive advice, as well as political support. We have worked with the emergency services in identifying toxic risks to the public from the lethal chemical used to fluoridate public water supplies, and in planning appropriate risk reduction and incident response strategies. We are now coordinating the activities of Councils and other organisation across the country to resist this threat to the democratic process and rational medical science.

How Councils and others can collaborate to defeat fluoridation.

In building up this nation-wide structure, we need firm personal contacts within Member Organisations, with whom we can liaise and plan our practical joint strategies and logistics. Members will need to appoint specific personnel to act as contacts with us, and we anticipate that most of our activities will use the Internet, and in particular this web site, as the primary medium for information distribution and operations management.

Inevitably, we also need modest financial resources to cover the costs of our operations. Members will be asked to contribute to the costs of this operation, to ensure that we can effectively challenge the Establishment and protect the public from the political manipulations of the Government and its entrenched pro-fluoridation advisers.