Modern legal problems of human health protection: from complex approaches to practical solutions
Authors: Balyuk G.I. , Kovalchuk T.G. , Pozniak E.V. 
Published: October 2024

The article analyzes the state of social relations on the protection of human health by means of environmental and legal regulation as an important direction of the state environmental policy and policy in the field of health protection, the development of legal practice, the identification of shortcomings and gaps in the current legislation, as well as making proposals for its improvement in view of international legal and European approaches to the regulation of the specified relations. Obtaining ecologically significant information about the state of human health, carrying out other investigations within the framework of the study of its determinants will contribute to the development of the mechanism of legal regulation of relevant relations in Ukraine.
The subject of the research is the provisions of environmental and other branches of legislation, as well as scientific-theoretical and practical ideas, views and approaches to solving legal problems of protecting human health and environmental protection, ensuring ecological, food, nutritional safety, developing the methodology of conducting scientific research in environmental and legal and other areas. The object of the research is social, environmental and other legal relations that arise in today’s conditions under the influence of military threats and the requirements of martial law, as well as social and legal prerequisites for the formation and development of determinants of health through the prism of the legal, in particular, environmental and legal mechanism.
The effectiveness of environmental law is largely determined by the implementation of the main and most important goal - the direct protection of a person and his right to life and health in general. The global community’s fight against excessive environmental pollution, the development of rational use of natural resources, care for people and all of humanity are fundamental vectors of the development of international cooperation. In most of the developed countries of the world, solving the problem of ensuring environmental safety is assigned to the competence of specially created government institutions, which determine the appropriate directions of international cooperation, vectors of development. It is necessary to make it impossible to ignore the natural-scientific paradigm, according to which the environment that affects the human body is not only nature, but also everything that is outside the body. The attention of scientists should not be limited to the analysis of the consequences of a polluted environment, but should also be directed to the study and forecasting of changes in the environment that surrounds a person, the conditions of human existence and their impact on the health of a person as a biosocial being. The range of these changes is very wide - from innovations in the structure of nutrition to transformations of culture and ethics, development of legal culture, healthy lifestyle at the social and individual levels. Human health should be considered as a complex socio­economic, ecological and hygienic indicator that integrates demographic, social and biological processes characteristic of human society, reflects the level of its economic and cultural development, the state of medical care, bears the imprint of historical and ethnographic traditions and natural and climatic changes.
Along with the culture of work, life, thinking, behavior, communication, adaptive culture, today it is proposed to highlight the culture of health, which in fact determines the further development of all types of cultures and should become a prerequisite for the formation of a person as a complete individual, covering all aspects of life. Preserving the health of the nation is a social necessity today. The process of forming an ecological culture through a system of educational activity measures, in addition to direct ecological culture, also covers the formation of a culture of a healthy lifestyle, hygienic skills, a caring attitude towards the environment, etc. It is equally important to ensure a balanced and safe diet for the entire population. Considering the complexity of the specified problem, it is necessary to involve specialists of various specialties in this work.
The set tasks actualize the issue of researching the content of the concept of «human health» defined by the Law of Ukraine «On the Public Health System». The term «ecological determinants of health» as the level of pollution of the natural environment (locality) where a person lives: the level of pollution of surface and underground water, land plots, atmospheric air, etc., needs legislative consolidation.