Medical Geology

1. General part.Introductory remarks. History of medical geography and medical geology. Methodology of medico-geographical research. Geography and medical geography in relation to geology. Geology. Subject matter and theoretical principles of medical geology. Medical geology. Procedure of medico-geological research. Goal, task, and significance of medical geology.2. Geological factors.Environment of life, natural environment, and geological environment. Basic features of the geological environment. Characteristics of geological factors and their influence on human health. 3. Other natural factors.Climatic factors. Hydrological factors. Biological factors.4. Anthropogenic factors.Processes of pollution and destruction of the geological environment. Artificial physical fields - risks and positive influence. Pollution of agricultural soil. Water pollution. Air pollution. Artificial radioactive pollution. Pollution and disturbance of the environment caused by ore exploitation and processing. Complex harmful influences of urbanization on the natural environment. Consequences of the action of pollutants. Role of ecological mineral substances in environment protection.5. Socio-economic factors and their influence on human health and health protection.Economic-geographic conditions. Medical-sanitary conditions. Role of the way of life and harmful habits in formation of nosogeographic characteristics of a territory. Socio-ecological foci of human diseases.6. The geography of disease (nosogeography).Non-infectious somatic diseases. Rare and strictly localized diseases.7. Subject and tasks of geological and medical disciplines in defining quality of the environment and its influence on human health.Subject and tasks of geological sciences and disciplines.8. Methods of medical geology.9. Regional medical geology.Geotectonic units of the first order interesting from the geomedical standpoint. Basic geomedical characteristics of first-order geotectonic units and their extreme zones. Geotectonic units and their extreme zones. Lower-ranking geomedical units.10. Applied medical geology.Medical risks and tasks of applied medical geology. Medico-geological evaluation of the environment. Role of medico-geological exploration in improving the environment and human health protection.11. Use of applied medical geology results in economy and health care.Use of results of medico-geological exploration in economy. Use of results of medico-geological exploration within health care. Geological factors and health aspect of stay in office and area of an appartment. Applied medical geology and land - use planning. Appendix base of medical geology. References.Author Index.Index of geographical terms.Subject Index.

The original book, "Medicinska Geologija", was published in 2002 by "Tellur" (publishing house) in Belgrade, Serbia.