Abstract
The recognition and analysis as well as a generally applicable ecotoxicological evaluation are parts of the strategy towards the determination of changes in the quality of environmental compartments and their effects on humans. The progress in the field of identification of qualitative effects calls for the creation of a theoretical basis for the empirical findings. With this task being the main concern, fundamental ideas on a theoretical‐methodological approach towards the ecotoxicological evaluation of environmental chemicals are discussed. The relationships between the molecular structure and the effect of the substances in abiotic and biotic environmental compartments are the basis of this approach.