Feds sets date for country-wide asbestos ban

The Government of Canada has announced it will move forward with a plan to ban asbestos and asbestos-containing products by 2018.

“Across Canada and around the world, asbestos-related cancers continue to hurt Canadian families and pose a significant burden for our health care systems,” said Health Minister Jane Philpott. “Our government is taking action to protect Canadians from substances such as asbestos that can be harmful to their health and safety.”

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The comprehensive ban on asbestos will include:

• Creating new regulations that ban the manufacture, use, import and export of asbestos under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the legislative framework that protects people from the risks associated with hazardous substances such as asbestos
• Establishing new federal workplace health and safety rules that will drastically limit the risk of people coming into contact with asbestos on the job
• Expanding the current online list of asbestos-containing buildings owned or leased by the Government of Canada
• Working in collaboration with the provincial and territorial partners to change the national, provincial and territorial building codes to prohibit the use of asbestos in new construction and renovation projects across Canada
• Updating Canada’s international position regarding the listing of asbestos as a hazardous material based on Canada’s domestic ban before next year’s meeting of parties to the Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty involving more than 150 countries that support listing asbestos as a hazard
• Raising awareness of the health impacts of asbestos to help reduce the incidence of lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases.

“The Prime Minister made a commitment to move forward on a ban on asbestos and asbestos-containing products in Canada,” said Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. “Today, we are delivering on that promise. We will put in place the best regulatory measures to protect the health and safety of Canadians as we move forward towards a complete ban on asbestos.”