Asbestos was widely used in Finnish construction from the 1920s right up to the ban in 1994. Finland also mined its own asbestos: the Paakkila anthophyllite mine in Tuusniemi operated from 1918 to 1975, and its fibre went mainly into domestic building products. Between imported chrysotile and home-grown anthophyllite, asbestos ended up in a very wide range of materials in old buildings, which is why people still look for it before renovations.
This article covers why asbestos became such a popular building material, what the Paakkila mine meant, how the use of asbestos changed over the decades and how a building's own construction and renovation history helps you judge where to look for asbestos.
Why did asbestos become so popular?
Asbestos fibres are strong, non-combustible and highly resistant to heat and chemicals. The fibre was easy to mix into cement, fillers, adhesives and plastics, and it improved the strength and heat resistance of the products. The word asbestos comes from Greek and means roughly "unquenchable". With the fibre also available at home, asbestos became an everyday raw material in Finland, used in family houses and industry alike.
Paakkila: Finland's own asbestos mine
The Paakkila mine in Tuusniemi was in its day the largest anthophyllite mine in the world. The anthophyllite asbestos mined there went mainly to the domestic construction industry. That is why the asbestos in old Finnish wall fillers is often anthophyllite, while elsewhere in the world the most common type was chrysotile. Production at the mine ended in 1975.
Anthophyllite is one of the amphibole asbestos types and, like the other types, it is carcinogenic. Read more on the anthophyllite page and in the article asbestos in nature, which explains how asbestos forms in the bedrock.
Imported asbestos and asbestos cement
Alongside domestic anthophyllite, Finland imported chrysotile, or white asbestos, mainly from Canada and the Soviet Union. Chrysotile was used above all in asbestos cement products such as roof and facade boards, which Finns often call minerite or eternit boards. Chrysotile is the most common type of asbestos in old buildings in Finland. Asbestos cement is covered in more detail in the article asbestos cement and minerite boards.
Asbestos use decade by decade
The breakdown below is only a guide. The same material could stay in use for a long time, and a building may have layers from many different decades.
1920s–1940s: heat and fire
The first Finnish asbestos products were asbestos paper and board and insulating compounds and yarns, used where heat and fire resistance were needed. Asbestos cement wall and roof boards began to be made in the late 1920s, and in the 1930s asbestos was also used in roofing felt, fillers and waterproofing.
After the wars: reconstruction
The veterans' houses of the post-war reconstruction era were built mainly of wood, so their original structures generally contain little asbestos. Asbestos usually arrived in these houses with later renovations. More on this in the article asbestos in a Finnish post-war house.
From the 1950s: new surfaces and adhesives
From the middle of the 20th century, asbestos was added to more and more coatings and adhesives. Tile adhesives, floor levelling compounds, plastic floor coverings, vinyl tiles and their adhesives are typical asbestos materials of this period, and asbestos-containing floor materials were still being made and installed in the 1980s.
1960s–1980s: the busiest building years
A great deal was built in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s, and in buildings from these decades asbestos often occurs in many different materials at once. Wall fillers containing anthophyllite were used at least in the 1960s and 1970s. Industrial and public buildings also used sprayed insulation and fire protection, in which the fibre was mainly crocidolite, or blue asbestos, with some amosite, or brown asbestos. Overall, far less crocidolite and amosite was used in Finland than chrysotile and anthophyllite.
Early 1990s: the end of use
The use of asbestos was restricted step by step, and in 1994 it was banned. The background to the ban and what the year means for anyone renovating are covered in the article when was asbestos banned in Finland.
After the ban: the asbestos legacy in buildings
The ban applied to the use of new asbestos-containing products; materials already in buildings did not have to be removed. So the history of asbestos in Finland is not over. The old materials are still in walls, floors and insulation, and they come to light whenever buildings are repaired or demolished.
The health effects also show up with a delay, because asbestos-related diseases usually appear only a long time after exposure. Current regulation therefore focuses on making sure the presence of asbestos is investigated before demolition work and that removal is done safely. The key statutes are the Act on certain requirements for asbestos removal work (684/2015) and the Government Decree on the safety of asbestos work (798/2015). The EU asbestos exposure directive (EU) 2023/2668 tightens the requirements further, as explained on the page the 2026 asbestos law change. A summary of the rules is in the article asbestos legislation in Finland.
How does a building's history help you find asbestos?
Once you know when the building was built and when it was renovated, you can work out which layers date from before 1994. The history tells you where to look for asbestos, but only a sample tells you whether it is in your particular material.
- Find out the year of construction, for example from the building's documents, the property manager or the municipal building control office.
- Gather information on earlier renovations: when the bathroom, kitchen, floors and facade were redone.
- Identify which materials and layers the upcoming renovation affects. An old adhesive or filler may be hidden under a newer surface.
- Take a sample of every material installed before 1994 that you plan to sand, drill or demolish. Wear disposable gloves and a respirator of at least class FFP3, mist the spot, remove a piece of about 2–5 centimetres through all the layers, pack it in two bags and label it, then cover the spot with tape and wipe the area with a damp cloth.
- Send the samples to the laboratory and wait for the result before any demolition starts.
More detailed instructions are in the article how to take an asbestos sample. Onelab analyses samples with a JEOL SEM-EDS electron microscope, which identifies all six types of asbestos, including anthophyllite, so typical of Finland. The result is sent by email, typically on the day the sample arrives. If asbestos is detected, the removal is carried out by a company authorised for asbestos removal work. In larger projects, on-site asbestos surveys are handled by our sister brand AsbestiPro.
How much does an asbestos analysis cost?
The analysis costs €39.90 + VAT per sample, and the price is the same for 1–100 samples. Orders of more than 100 samples can be priced separately. Postage is not included. You can order the analysis online and send the samples to the laboratory by post.