diff --git a/src/corelib/global/qglobal.cpp b/src/corelib/global/qglobal.cpp
index 108866b8df..66664f0f2a 100644
--- a/src/corelib/global/qglobal.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/global/qglobal.cpp
@@ -3291,6 +3291,8 @@ bool QInternal::activateCallbacks(Callback cb, void **parameters)
     stderr. Under Windows, the message is sent to the debugger.
     On Blackberry the message is sent to slogger2.
 
+    It exits if the environment variable QT_FATAL_CRITICALS is not empty.
+
     This function takes a format string and a list of arguments,
     similar to the C printf() function. The format should be a Latin-1
     string.
diff --git a/src/corelib/global/qlogging.cpp b/src/corelib/global/qlogging.cpp
index 64dd544cf0..d8ef8a57a8 100644
--- a/src/corelib/global/qlogging.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/global/qlogging.cpp
@@ -83,6 +83,11 @@ static bool isFatal(QtMsgType msgType)
     if (msgType == QtFatalMsg)
         return true;
 
+    if (msgType == QtCriticalMsg) {
+        static bool fatalCriticals = !qEnvironmentVariableIsEmpty("QT_FATAL_CRITICALS");
+        return fatalCriticals;
+    }
+
     if (msgType == QtWarningMsg || msgType == QtCriticalMsg) {
         static bool fatalWarnings = !qEnvironmentVariableIsEmpty("QT_FATAL_WARNINGS");
         return fatalWarnings;