OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canada is moving to ban all products containing asbestos by 2018.
The comprehensive ban will include construction materials and brake pads that currently use the cancer-causing agent.
Canada closed its last asbestos mines a decade ago, but had obstructed international efforts to list it as a hazardous substance.
Science Minister Kirsty Duncan said Thursday that stance will change in the next Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty involving more than 150 countries that support listing asbestos as a hazard.
Asbestos was declared a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1987.
Health Minister Jane Philpott says asbestos-related cancers continue to hurt Canadian families.
The government says there are no significant health risks if materials containing asbestos in homes are tightly bound and left undisturbed.