Criteria and Principles of Developing an Ecological Policy

Ecological problems today have acquired special urgency and have become the subject of intensive research. At the same time, however, many existing research efforts, programs, and conceptions do not take the interrelationship between ecological and social problems sufficiently into account. We refer above all to the protection of the population's health and to the orientation of ecological policy toward man. The state of health depends on many factors. First, a major influence is exerted on health by the volume, structure, quality, and standards of consumption; the provision with housing; the organization of everyday life and leisure time; the development of culture; the degree of sociopolitical comfort; and the democratic orientation of society. Second, the health of society reflects the state of the environment and working conditions, i.e., the level of development of the entire material-technical base of production. Third, positive and negative processes in society and the environment determine the health of future generations. Fourth, the state of the population's health depends on the effectiveness of the functioning of social institutions and especially on health care.>sup>1>/sup>