As the freezing Finnish winter arrives, many Oululaiset are thinking about nothing more than relaxing with a beer in the sauna. They might not think that they are embroiling themselves in a bitter Human Rights dispute by doing so.

Campaigning outside Apteekki on Isokatu on Monday (27th November) with a megaphone and a newsletter,  Wäiniö Pietikäinen (71) wants everyone to know about how saunas are used by Sweden to ‘violate the human rights of Finns.’ Mr. Pietikäinen claims that he, and many other Finns, have asbestos poisoning from having worked in Swedish factories. He is furious that certain doctors in Sweden, he claims, argue that Finns have asbestos poisoning because they insist on using saunas which, they theorise, contain asbestos. Mr. Pietikäinen even claims this theory an assault on the Human Rights of Finns by the Swedish government who have used Finnish labour and refuse to accept the illness that has resulted, citing the theory.
   
Mr. Pietikäinen, a retired factory worker, is trying to draw international attention to what he sees as the twenty-five year attack on Finnish human rights with the asbestos-sauna theory and he claims to suffer from the effects of asbestos himself. He had signs in English, German and Swedish and even displayed a copy of a letter that he wrote to then American President George Bush in 1992 asking him to raise the issue with the Swedish Prime Minister. He wrote to President Bush after Bush visited Finland and declared that he liked the ‘Finnish Sauna.’
   
Pietikäinen told Bush that Swedish doctors had a theory that ‘Finns often get sick with asbestos because of Finnish sauna’ and that this theory is being used to avoid compensating sick Finnish, former factory-workers. ‘Thousands of Finns have suffered because of this’ he wrote to President Bush.
   
Passers by seemed quite interested in his campaign and a small number signed his petition and took copies of the ‘People’s Voice,’ what he called a ‘socialist, anti-fascist’ newspaper that he was distributing.
   
According to the BBC, there is the risk of asbestos poisoning – and thus the possibility of lung cancer – if you are not careful which rocks you put in your sauna oven. If the rocks have ‘fibrous minerals’ in them, they may contain asbestos. Throwing water onto the heated rocks releases tiny amounts of asbestos into the steam which you may inhale. The BBC claims that it is very unlikely that you would get lung cancer this way but it is possible. This is also only likely to be a problem, however, for people that build their own saunas.
   
Research in one medical journal by Dr. G. Hillerdal, which looked at cases of asbestos-related illness amongst people living in Uppsala up to 1981, found that a disproportionately high percentage of women and young men who suffered had been born in Finland. Moreover, the research, published in the European Journal of Respiratory Disease in 1983, found that these Finns were exposed to far less asbestos in Sweden than the Swedes and that they were from all over Finland, not just areas where there is a lot of asbestos. Thus, it was hypothesised that the Finnish sauna tradition might be to blame for the problems.    
   
Asbestos was used historically, due to its fire resistance, to make cloths. More recently it has been used in industry, construction and for insulation. As early as 1898, doctors were reporting that the inhalation of asbestos dust had harmful effects and asbestos is now banned in many countries.