Newfoundland and Labrador is the latest province to ban the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides on household lawns.

Environment Minister Ross Wiseman says the ban would start next year but not extend to the necessary use of pesticides in agriculture, along roads and transmission lines or on golf courses.

Health Canada has said that pesticides such as 2, 4-D are safe when used according to product label instructions.

But the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, has classed the pesticide as a possible human carcinogen.

Five Canadian provinces — Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island — have banned the use of 2, 4-D on lawns. The Government of British Columbia has convened a panel to examine the use of such pesticides in the province.

Environmental activists have long urged Newfoundland and Labrador to enact a similar ban.

Wiseman says the need for household lawn pesticides can be reduced by using more topsoil and improved planting methods.