It is shown that the effective number of the polymeric macromolecule reactive centers depends on the macromolecular coil structure. The quantitative characteristic of the latter one can be received within the framework of the fractal analysis. The increase in macromolecular coil fractal dimension, meaning the rise of a degree of its compactness, results in lowering the effective number of the reactive (accessible to the molecules of oxidant) sites of a polymeric macromolecule. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 1764-1767, 2003.