Under the Civil Defense Act of 1958, the Ministry of Interior was directed to provide civil defense to protect persons and property in wartime as well as in peacetime. The act stipulated that the ministry was to be responsible for providing shelters in high-risk areas, for evacuating civilian population from threatened areas, and for limiting damage from natural disasters. In emergency situations, firefighting, rescue, ambulance, and first-aid services were coordinated with the civil defense effort. Civil defense operations were entirely a civilian responsibility.

The ministry delegated the implementation of national policy to county and municipal authorities, which acted through locally appointed civil defense boards. These boards supervised operations from more than 100 civil defense centers designated throughout the country. Personnel in national and local government agencies, committed to civil defense in emergency situations, and in independent voluntary organizations that would come under their jurisdiction numbered over 100,000. Nongovernment organizations involved in civil defense activities included the Finnish Red Cross and the Rescue Service. Police were also assigned to reinforce civil defense workers as conditions required.

An alarm system was in place in urban centers to warn the civilian population of threatened attacks. During an emergency situation, instructions would be broadcast through normal media channels. The early warning civil defense system was tied into the nationwide military air surveillance system.

The Ministry of Interior maintained hard shelters, capable of accommodating 2.6 million persons, in cities and in other densely populated areas where two-thirds of the country's population lived. They were built to withstand the detonation of a 100- kiloton nuclear bomb at ground zero. There was no shelter program in rural areas nor were most detached dwellings and townhouses equipped with shelters. About 10 percent of the shelters were carved out of natural rock, but most were beneath office and residential buildings. Some were designed for multiple use as parking garages, schoolrooms, skating rinks, and swimming pools. By law, builders were obliged to include shelters in blocks measuring 3,000 cubic meters or more. In Helsinki, 536,000 spaces were provided, of which 118,000 were in large rock shelters and 14,000 were in subway stations. The shelter space was sufficient to accommodate over 100 percent of the nighttime population of the city, but only 67 percent of the daytime population.

The most serious shortcoming of Finland's civil defense system was that 1.5 million Finns had no access to shelters. Another reason for concern was that many shelters were poorly equipped and maintained. All shelters were supposed to be outfitted with self-contained power and ventilation systems, sanitary facilities, and emergency supplies. Nevertheless, inspections during 1986 found that two-thirds of shelters in private buildings had some deficiencies.

Contingency plans included massive evacuation of civilians from likely target areas, threatened with attack by con819 onventional forces in time of war. Medical services for civilian casualties would be provided at local facilities in coordination with the civil defense branch of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Civil defense authorities considered, however, that evacuation of the civilian population to escape fallout following a nuclear attack would be pointless, and no provision was made for such a contingency.

The public's perception of civil defense efforts was marked by considerable indifference during the 1980s. Although its system was far more complete than the systems in most countries of Western Europe, Finland's annual expenditure per capita on civil defense of US$12 was well below the rate of other Scandinavian countries, which averaged US$20 per capita. The nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986 underscored Finland's vulnerability and triggered renewed concern over shortcomings in the civil defense program. In response, the government announced plans in 1988 to introduce an automatic radiation surveillance network to supplement the existing manual one and to ensure that an outdoor alarm system was operational in all municipalities.

Data as of December 1988