Ecological conditions are major determinants of health and disease processes in human populations. Health is a product of interactions between people and the environment in which they live and which provides natural resources for sustaining health and life of societies. According to WHO, changes in the natural environment caused by human activities are responsible for 24% of all diseases globally and for 23% of premature deaths. Ecological background can be most clearly established for the majority of infectious diseases. Unsustainable development, that is so characteristic for the current times, is causing depletion of natural resources and thus is reducing the capacity of the human ecosphere to sustain health and life of human populations. The Global Environmental Changes are the outcomes of the strong pressings on the environment by such process as, increasing populations’ growth, urbanization, increasing demand and exploitation of natural resources, degradation of ecosystems by harmful emissions and waste generation. These global changes are a new challenge for the public health and point to the need to consider the context of the human ecology in the research and practice of public health. Current epidemiological research continues focusing rather on describing health risk factors than on explaining processes which transform populations’ health into diseases.

Słowa kluczowe: zdrowie publiczne, ekologia człowieka, globalne zmiany środowiskowe, epidemiologia, public health, human ecology, global environmental changes, epidemiology