The book of the famous scientist from the GDR is devoted to an extremely important and urgent problem - the accumulation of poisons in the environment and their distribution along food chains. Episodes from the history of the use of insecticides, herbicides, etc., the biocidal effects of heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, lead, etc.), organochlorine compounds, fertilizers and other potential environmental pollutants, the problem of water pollution, the routes of entry of poisons from food of plant and animal origin, their accumulation in the body and effects on animals and humans.