Kansanterveystieteen ekologinen käänne : Kohti ekososiaalista terveysparadigmaa

Climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and water pollution are examples of ongoing ecosystem crises on our planet. These eco-crises have been identified to have a direct and indirect impact on human health in the short and long term. The ecological perspective has become increasingly visible internationally also in the field of health science. However, the Finnish public health science and its fields of application, such as health promotion policy, still lacks an ecological perspective.
In this article, we compare ecologically oriented concepts and perspectives used in health sciences. These include One Health, EcoHealth, Planetary Health and Ecological public health. In addition to these, we present an ecosocial paradigm familiar from other disciplines. The aim is to raise awareness of ecologically oriented concepts of health in Finland, to weigh their advantages and limitations and potential as a revolutionary new ecological perspective. We reflect on
the relationship between these concepts to the prevailing public health orientation and challenge it by presenting the idea of an ecosocial health paradigm. The article is based on earlier literature that describes the similarities and differences of
the above-mentioned concepts. In the field of health sciences, there are several
ecologically oriented concepts with similarities but also clear differences. These concepts are not intervening on the root causes of eco-crises, and hence human health. That is why we are proposing to adopt the idea of an ecosocial health
paradigm in order to enable a more effective ecological turnaround both in public health thinking and in practice.