The Fossil Fuel Ads Make Us Sick campaign is inspired by the physician-led campaign against tobacco advertising, but centers on another, even more serious public health threat: fossil fuels. 

Just like cigarette-smoking, fossil fuels have significant impacts on health: air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels is one of the leading causes of premature mortality in Canada, and children who live in homes with gas stoves have similar risk of asthma as children living with a smoker. Fossil fuels also cause climate change, which affects the health of Canadians through heat waves, food insecurity, respiratory problems from wildfire smoke, increased infectious diseases from pests, disruptions to healthcare infrastructure and services and more. These impacts will only increase as climate change worsens.

CAPE doctors are calling for a ban on all fossil fuel advertising in the name of public and planetary health. 

The campaign launched on Clean Air Day, June 8th 2022, with an open letter to federal Ministers signed by 35+ organizations representing over 700,000 health professionals voicing support for an ad-ban. 

CAPE’s campaign is the first fossil fuel ad-ban campaign in the world led by health professionals, and it is supported by a broad coalition of Canadian health, environmental, parent, and cultural groups. It joins other campaigns around the world targeting fossil fuel ads, which have led to successful bans in Amsterdam and France.

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Press Releases

• Environmental and health groups call for competition law that can tackle the climate crisis
• Physicians challenge Pathways Alliance greenwashing campaign
• Canada’s Competition Bureau opens investigation into the Canadian Gas Association’s alleged greenwashing of methane gas as clean
• $10 million complaint flagging advertising by the Canadian Gas Association is filed today with the Competition Bureau by Canadian doctors, nurses and public health advocates
• Canadian doctors call for tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel advertising in Canada

Media

• Watchdog investigating claims oil and gas companies misled Canadians | Glacier Media
• Canada’s largest oilsands companies being investigated over allegations they made false environmental claims | Toronto Star
• Comment: False advertising must never again sabotage climate action | Times Colonist
• Canada’s market watchdog needs overhaul to target ‘greenwashing,’ say groups | Glacier Media
• Feds urged to turn Competition Act into a greenwashing-fighting machine | National Observer
• Temper, Waters, Wines and Barnes: Big oil and gas should not be sponsoring Winterlude | Ottawa Citizen
• Competition Act reform: modernization cannot ignore sustainability | Hill Times
• Should winter events reject fossil fuel funds? With Rideau Canal skating on thin ice, Ottawa locals weigh in | The Narwhal
• Oil sands lobby group facing Competition Act complaint over false and misleading claims | Ricochet
• In central Alberta, public school teachers gather for session on ‘bright future for oil and gas’ | The Narwhal
• The propaganda playbook: How the PR industry shifted from tobacco to fossil fuels | Ricochet
• The burning truth behind gas stoves – and how it fanned the flames of a culture war | Toronto Star
• Gasthma in the home, carbon in the sky | National Observer
• Gas stoves may be banned in U.S. amid health concerns, links to childhood asthma | Calgary Herald
• How fossil fuel companies push disinformation through media campaigns | Ricochet
• How the Competition Bureau found its muscle – and why that’s good news for consumers | The Globe and Mail
• Canadian doctors prescribe fines for natural gas ‘greenwashers’ | Corporate Knights
• The Feds Have Launched Greenwashing Investigations. Look Who’s Targeted | The Tyee
• Justin Trudeau’s Canada is Cozying Up to the Fossil Fuel Industry to Fight the Climate Crisis | Jacobin Magazine
• The case for banning fossil fuel ads | Policy Options
• It’s time to extinguish oil and gas industry “gaslighting” | Rabble.ca
• Will more countries ban fossil fuel ads? | Corporate Knights
• $10M Complaint Accuses Canadian Gas Lobby of Greenwashing | The Energy Mix
• Doctors File False Advertising Complaint Over Hidden Health Risks of Gas | The Tyee
• Canadian health workers file complaint against natural gas lobby group over ‘false and misleading’ claims | National Observer
• B.C. doctors file request to investigate Canadian Gas Association over ‘greenwashing’ | New Westminster Record
• COLE’s NOTES: Is it time to put warning labels on fossil fuel products? | Trail Times
• Canada needs tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel ads to combat climate change public health crisis | The Hill Times
• Doctors’ group calls for ban on fossil fuel ads in open letter | The Globe and Mail
• Doctors’ groups push for truth in advertising when it comes to fossil fuels | National Observer