Finnish Home Accident Prevention Campaign

FINNISH HOME ACCIDENT PREVENTION CAMPAIGN

You have only one life.

15 August 2009, Cali, Colombia

Joona VuorenpääChair of Campaign &

Communications Manager at Federation of Finnish Financial Services


Facts about Finland

• Country of 5 million inhabitans.• Land of 200,000 lakes.• Democratic republic since 1917.• One of the strongest European economies.

• Land of NOKIA, world’s biggest cruise ships, many kinds of high tech, pulp&paper, machinery, F1 and Rally car world champions, architects and composers…

• Word SAUNA probably the oldest globally used Finnish word. Many Finns have two saunas or even more.


Problems:• Heavy drinking combined with high risk taking.• One of the highest number of home and leisure

accidents in Europe compared to population.• Double the number of fatal home accidents compared

to Sweden in relation to population.• Finns get bigger and fatter. This poses a practical but

strange problem – Finnish corpses don’t fit in to traditional coffins any more.

• New and alarming phenomenon: School massacres…

Facts about Finland


Home accidents and injuries in Finland• 800,000 out of 1,100,000 accidents a year are home

and leisure accidents.• 2,700 deaths caused by home and leisure activities.• 1,100 deaths (out of 2,700) caused by falling and

slipping. This is triple the number of lives lost in traffic!• 50,000 visits to trauma clinics caused by slipping in

snow and ice every year.• Economic losses due to home and leisure accidents in

Finland estimated as high as € 4 bn a year!


Accidents and violence

Work18%

Violence10%

Traffic6%

Home and leisure66%


Fatal accidents

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

Fatal home accidents

Fatal traffic accidents

Fatal work accidents


Home accident related deaths globallyGB

Netherlands

Israel

Portugal

Australia

Ireland

Japan

Germany

Canada

Sweden

New Zealand

Spain

USA

Italy

Greece

Austria

Norway

Denmark

Switzerland

Finland

France

1970/1980

1990/1999


Reasons behind increase in home accidents

• Increase in use of alcohol.• Increase in leisure.• Increase in aging population.• Increase in “helplessness” among “young urban

professionals”.• Increase in extreme hobbies and sport.

Too many people don’t care about proper training, safety instructions etc. because they think they can manage everything.


Home accident prevention campaignCampaigning since 1993, present members:

• The Finnish Red Cross • The Finnish National Rescue Association• Local and Regional Government Finland • Ministry of the Interior • The National Defence Training Association of Finland• National Public Health Institute• Ministry of Social Affairs and Health • Finnish Centre for Health Promotion • Federation of Finnish Financial Services (Chair)


Home accident prevention campaignMethods:

• Increasing public awareness by using media. • Lobbying decision makers both local and national level.• Supporting individual local players.• Organising seminars, training and fairs.• Producing printed and web based materials. • Supporting Finland’s National Internal Security&Safety

Program and its objectives.


Safest home so far?Portable safe home introduced summer 2009 -Wireless smoke/motion detector system.

-Emergency centre services, 24/7 on-call guard. -Key management maintenance.

-Cuts off electricity from selected electric devices in case of a fire.

-Fire-extinguishing system with sprinklers and fire alarms connected to the electric system.

-Turn electricity off from the stove in case of danger. -Cuts off electricity and water from the dishwasher when it’s not used or in case of leakage or malfunction. -Fireproof textiles, anti-slip floor materials, effective lighting choices and handrails. -Affect insurance premiums and deductibles btn -25-60%.

Health & Medicine

Finnish Home Accident Prevention Campaign