Health, Legal Rights and Product Safety Department

The possibilities and significance of the licensing administration that forms the basis of proactive supervision are based on comprehensiveness as a means of supervision: an appropriate license or notification must be sought or made for the pursuit of all economic activities subject to a licence and recorded in the register of the licensing authority. This will provide the licensor with information on all operators and a means to reach them for steering, supervision, inspection or communications.

The objective of environmental health care steering is to ensure the health and safety of the living environment. The steering and licencing administration of alcohol administration and alcohol control ensure uniform procedures and solutions throughout the country.

The Director of the department is Jussi Holmalahti.

Professional practice rights 2 unit, Head of Unit Jenni Kangas

• legalisation of social welfare and health care professionals, job title protection and licenses

Alcohol industry unit, Head of Unit Eeva Saari

• licenses for the production, import and wholesale of alcohol
• alcohol licences (industry, professionals, educational and research institutions)
• product control of alcohol, monopoly supervision, and the supervision of reporting by licensees
• tasks related to the non-commercial import of alcoholic beverages (online sales).

Health promotion unit, Head of Unit Kari Kunnas

• national steering of regional state administrative agencies’ alcohol administration (serving alcohol, advertising, retail sales)
• national supervision of alcohol advertising
• notifications of serving of alcohol and retail sales in international airport traffic
• national steering of environmental health care
• tester approvals (household and pool water hygiene competence) and issuance of water work cards
• Implementation of national control programmes, including the national supervision programme of the Tobacco Act
• tasks related to the supervision of the Tobacco Act and the supervision of tobacco advertising and sales promotion
• special situations in environmental health care, preparedness

In addition, the department

• grants abortion and sterilization licenses in certain cases
• grants licenses under the Act on Assisted Fertility Treatments
• maintains a register of the donations of gametes and embryos made for fertility treatment.