[On the Draft Regulations on Districts of Sanitary (Mountain Sanitary) Protection of Natural Medicinal Resources: Comments, Suggestions]. / O proekte Polozheniya ob okrugakh sanitarnoi (gorno-sanitarnoi) okhrany prirodnykh lechebnykh resursov: zamechaniya, predlozheniya.

The purpose of the article is to attract the attention of specialists in the resort business in the document being developed - the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation «On Approval of the Regulations on the Districts of Sanitary (Mining and Sanitary) Protection of Natural Medicinal Resources¼, the draft of which is proposed for discussion. The article presents all the comments on the discussed draft Regulation and proposals for making appropriate changes with their reasoned justification. The proposals put forward to change the wording of specific paragraphs of the Regulation are aimed at protecting and preserving the wealth of our country - natural healing factors that form the basis of sanatorium treatment. The proposals made to edit the paragraphs of the Regulation will undoubtedly guarantee the preservation of Russia's natural healing resources in order to use them for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of the population of our country and the successful development of the resort industry.

[The potential of using the underground mineral waters of the Moscow region in the organization of medical rehabilitation and medical tourism]. / Potentsial ispol'zovaniya podzemnykh mineral'nykh vod Moskovskogo regiona v organizatsii meditsinskoi reabilitatsii i lechebnogo turizma.

Moscow in modern borders is the largest metropolitan area in the country with a fairly high and unevenly distributed population density. This predetermines the need to address environmental regulation of urbanization in order to create the most comfortable living conditions for the population. Health care and the maintenance of health of all age groups are the leading role in the list of the most important tasks to ensure the social well-being of citizens. In the bowels of the Moscow region there are natural therapeutic resources: low-mineralized (M 3-5 g/l) sulfate sodium-magnesium-calcium drinking mineral water and chloride sodium bromine brine. The article presents the characteristics of the natural therapeutic resources of the Moscow region, the area of their therapeutic use, justified the possibility of wider use based on the available scientific data on the effect on the body of these waters and their analogues. All this provides an opportunity to achieve the main goal of medical resortology - the use of mineral water as a means of therapy, rehabilitation and prevention of most existing human diseases.

[Weakly mineralized nitrogen thermal waters of Russia]. / Azotnye slabomineralizovannye termal'nye mineral'nye vody Rossii.

Russia has almost all hydrochemical types of underground mineral waters; however, unlike the well-known and popular resorts in the world, they are used very limitedly. In addition to their high medicinal value, mineral waters, when properly marketed, is a natural product that is comparable, and, in many cases, superior in price to that of similar volumes of high-octane gasoline. In addition to the characteristics of the chemical and gas composition, some underground mineral waters in their native state have an elevated temperature and are thermal and hyperthermal. Low-mineralized nitrogen thermae are one of the large groups of mineral waters; they are common in the areas of young tectonic faults in the earth's crust, which frame the mountainous areas. The deposits of thermae within the blocky and folded-blocky structures are fractured water-pressure systems; the thermal waters in the sedimentary and volcanic-sedimentary rocks saturate the reservoir or fissure-interstitial aquifers and are typical artesian basins. The successful development of health resort business in Russia should be, first of all, based on the extensive use of natural therapeutic factors. As clearly confirmed by the experience with spa treatment in both Russia and world practice, accumulated data from researches, thermal mineral waters determine the possibility of creating large spa centers that provide high economic efficiency.

[The natural therapeutic resources of Russia: the topical problems]. / Prirodnye lechebnye resursy Rossii: aktual'nye problemy.

Mineral water, therapeutic peloids, favorable landscape and climatic conditions make up the main basis for the creation and development of the health resort business. Mineral water and therapeutic peloids are mineral resources, their prospecting, discovery, exploration and stock assessment of the responsibility of the Geological Survey of the country while the exploration and practical exploitation of the natural medicinal resources is the prerogative of the users of subsurface resources. At present, there are over 1200 deposits of mineral waters as well as more than 260 sources of therapeutic peloids at the territory of the Russian Federation; the include almost all hydrochemical species and types known and exploited in the world's practice The overall picture of the distribution of the potential and developed deposits of mineral waters and therapeutic peloids of the territory of this country is highly non-uniform and depends on the extent of the economic development of different regions, their geographical and climatic conditions as well as the state and availability of the spa and health resort infrastructure. The natural therapeutic resources, territories suitable for the organization and realization of health promoting activities, setting up new spa and health resort facilities are highly vulnerable to any external impact. We possess the scientifically grounded and practice-proven methods for the search, prospecting, practical development, and medical utilization of various natural therapeutic resources as well as technologies for their conservation, restoration, and protection from damages and overexploitation. The rational use and development of the territories promising for the extension of health resort business imply the necessity of the systemic approach in a consistent stage by stage manner based of the reliable prognoses.

[The necessity of new approaches to the elaboration of the projects for the sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts around the therapeutic and health-promotion facilities, health resorts and their natural medical resources].

The international experience gained during the past two centuries indicates that the most efficient and rational way to ensure the protection of the territories occupied by the therapeutic and health-promotion facilities, spa centres, and health resorts together with their natural medical resources is to set up sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts or zones along the perimeter of these territories. Beginning from 2000, numerous changes and amendments have been annually introduced in the Russian legislation intended to ensure efficacious control over the rational exploitation of the territories of therapeutic and health-promotion value and their natural medical resources. These initiatives have negative effect on the activities of these organizations and the quality of the services they are expected to provide. Taken together these effects lead to the degradation of the spa and health resort business. Bearing in mind the current conditions for economic activities, it is proposed, in contrast to the former global approach, to envisage in the aforementioned projects the establishment of the sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts or zones and determine their borders based on the results of the assessment of their potential for the protection of therapeutic factors and other valuable resources. Equally important is the maximum reduction of the areas of the second and third zones taking into account their relevant objective characteristics. In certain cases, the protective district may coincide with the second zone. As far as the federal health resorts and large territories of special health-promotion value are concerned, some of them may have two or more sanitary (mountainous sanitary) protection districts. Both the owners and the users of these territories should be provided the necessary and sufficient possibilities for the rational nature use at the grounds and in the adjacent water areas suitable for the development of health resort business in the conditions guaranteed by the national legislation.