Chemical pollution is more and more in the media. Our health is threatened by substance groubs such as per- and polyfluorated alkyl substances and phthalate plasticizers. Couldn't we have seen this health threat earlier on? How can we account for health and environmental impacts while developing new chemicals? As an answer to this, safe- and sustainable by design criteria for chemicals have recently been developed on EU level. It will be discussed how health and evnironmental impacts can be assessed and estimated by chemists in academia.