A limestone company from county of Parainen, self-appointedly named as Paraisten Kalkki Oy is the goddfather of Finnish limestone business. Pa®t€k is their successor. The firm was the owner and user of this asbestos factory in our capitol city, old residential and industrial district of Tapanila, from 1944 to 1978 (some sources say 1930's - 1978). Production was ceased due to diplorable side effects of asbestos that had come to knowledge. The building was demolished not earlier than 2001. It stood unused for more than two decades and became a graffiti gallery, despite all the contamination it held. Also a nearby production waste dump pit and warehouses were contaminated by asbestos, so cleaning up the place was a demanding job. We checked the place out just weeks before it disappeared totally.

Quite exactly speaking the place wasn't an asbestos factory. They produced minerit board, for which asbestos was a perfect compounding material back then. After the true nature of asbestos had been commonly understood and the whole a-word became a spook, this factory was labelled as "asbestos factory" because of the known fact that they used asbestos in their products. Even in official records and research documents the place is referred to as asbestos factory.

What comes to nature of the factory building itself, it was an unpleasant place to visit. Perhaps our minds were prejudiced by forehand information. We knew the place really was contaminated, we knew the connection of a-word and the factory - and we knew the crime news that had actually introduced the factory to us. Two guys had mugged a random jogger badly at the yard, here. While reconnaissance cruising the bypassing street we also saw some less nice looking guys in nearby. Web forum of the Tapanila native region society knew only negative things about the factory, like a junkie who'd been threatening bypassers of the factory claiming to live there and drug dealing.

We went in anyway. The place seemed peaceful so we parked the car to backyard. Asbestos danger -signs and tape lines were all around, and the windows and doors were all covered by sheet metal. Still, vandals had been active and an expansion wing door's protection had given up. The hole, just big enough to crawl through had some junk like a tree block covering it, which was weird. When inside, we found out that a 'few' people had already risked their health by entering before us. Graffiti was everywhere, like we've only seen in a couple of other places. There were junk cars inside, which hints that maybe the place hasn't always been quite that well closed. We also saw some clothes, whether they belonged to some deconstruction worker or the formerly mentioned crazed junkie of the factory will remain a mystery.