The committee, led by professor Kari Reijula from the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health, found that mould and damp affects hundreds of thousands of people in Finland.
Damp and mould affects up to 337,000 people in row houses and small dwellings in Finland, as well as up to 154,000 people in apartment blocks. Around 260,000 children attend schools or daycare centres affected by mould problems.
If the cost of repairing the problems is included in the calculations, the total reaches 1.4 billion euros. According to the report, damage is typically caused by negligent maintenance, defective mould prevention during construction or natural erosion of building materials.
