Emissions of environmentally polluting pollutants, in particular from agriculture and industries, cause major problems in our environment and Danish Regions spend a lot of resources on the purification of contaminated soil and waste water pumping. The degradation of most types of contamination involves activity of microorganisms and at the Department of Environmental Science there is a focus on methods for following the microorganisms that break down especially pesticides, chlorinated solvents and endocrine disruptors. Conversely, there is also a focus on how toxic substances affect the Earth's microorganisms and thus the important processes they drive: