A woman died in Helsinki last autumn after falling from a balcony outfitted with the panels.Police investigate a balcony from which a woman fell in September 2025. File photo. Image: Kristiina Lehto / YleYle News21.5. 16:23The Safety Investigation Authority (Otkes) is warning against using fibre cement boards as protection barriers on balconies.Their guidance relates to a woman's deadly fall from a fifth-floor balcony in the Hietalahti district last September. The woman died after falling through the balcony railing panel.Otkes' tests have now confirmed that the fibre cement panel installed on the balcony was too weak to prevent a fall. Investigators carried out ten separate structural tests on different balcony panels."The test results showed that, in practice, the impact caused by a small child aged 3–6 is sufficient to cause the board to fail,” Toni Kekki of the authority said in a release.According to Kekki, fortified glass balcony panels are subject to impact-resistance standards designed to withstand the force of an adult stumbling against them. But there is no equivalent safety requirement for fibre cement panels, although they are used for the same purpose.Fibre cement panels have been widely used on balconies in Finland, particularly in apartment buildings built between the 1960s and 1980s, in part because they were considered economical.Otkes is now urging supervisory authorities to take enforcement measures to improve balcony safety.It is also sending its findings on the matter to the environment ministry as well as to municipalities and housing authorities.