All asbestos to be banned

Photo: The Canadian Press

Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science

The federal government is moving to ban all products containing asbestos by 2018.

The comprehensive ban is designed to include construction materials and brake pads that currently use the cancer-causing agent.

Even minute amounts of asbestos fibres can cause lung cancer or deadly mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer.

Thousands of Canadians continue to suffer from the long-term impacts of decades of heavy asbestos use.

Canada closed its last asbestos mines a decade ago, but has continued to obstruct international efforts to list it as a hazardous substance.

Science Minister Kirsty Duncan says that stance will change in the next Rotterdam Convention.