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Sivernores
"The indoor pollution experts neglected to examine the paint for traces of other toxic substances such as cadmium and mercury."
It seems to me that this answer is correct.

This option is correct only if we look for a sufficient condition that guarantee the safety standard. However, the argument doesn't look for sufficient conditions that guarantee the safety but for a necessary condition that should be done To meet safety standards, owners should repaint walls at least every six months, or cover the walls with a different material

To weaken the necessary condition that the argument proposes, we need look for reasons why the owners of the office buildings doesn't need to cover the walls or repaint the walls. Only E provides such justification to disavow the responsibility of 're-painting'
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"The indoor pollution experts' research shows that the amounts of lead that come into contact with the air people breathe, even in the office buildings that used the greatest amount of paint, are too low to affect workers". Even if this is the case if doesn't see t safety standards it should be repainted

E doesn't work
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GMATNinja can you please explain why C is wrong and E is right.
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I could be wrong here but Option E is still shaky and holds weaker grounds than option C

Conclusion - owners should repaint walls at least every six months, or cover the walls with a different material to meet safety standards

I could weaken it in multiple ways
1. By saying they can do it in 2 years and not 6 month.

>> This is what option C is telling us. That it takes roughly 2 years for the paint to start dissipating into air. Repainting after atleast 2 years is fine, therefore.


2. By saying no matter when you do(6 months or 60 month), it may not impact the safety being discussed because there is no safety concern here

>>This is what option E is telling us. However, i am still not sure of this because its not tied specifically to the conclusion. Amounts of lead that come in contact when? before 6 months(if yes, then please repaint sooner )? after n months(then atleast 6 months is fine)?

My analysis could be wrong and I am open to discuss and learn the correct approach. Thank you

DanTheGMATMan KarishmaB - Experts, please help.
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vishalsinghvs08
I could be wrong here but Option E is still shaky and holds weaker grounds than option C

Conclusion - owners should repaint walls at least every six months, or cover the walls with a different material to meet safety standards

I could weaken it in multiple ways
1. By saying they can do it in 2 years and not 6 month.

>> This is what option C is telling us. That it takes roughly 2 years for the paint to start dissipating into air. Repainting after atleast 2 years is fine, therefore.


2. By saying no matter when you do(6 months or 60 month), it may not impact the safety being discussed because there is no safety concern here

>>This is what option E is telling us. However, i am still not sure of this because its not tied specifically to the conclusion. Amounts of lead that come in contact when? before 6 months(if yes, then please repaint sooner )? after n months(then atleast 6 months is fine)?

My analysis could be wrong and I am open to discuss and learn the correct approach. Thank you

DanTheGMATMan KarishmaB - Experts, please help.

You are right about the possible ways of weakening this conclusion. It could be that it doesn't need to be as frequent as the author claims, or that this concern isn't actually warranted to begin with. The author concludes that it needs to be done every 6 months, and E says this isn't necessary/won't make a difference.

The problem with C is that, once the paint has reached the surface at 6 months, it is potentially poisoning people the entire time it's there. I don't think they are saying that because the amount remains constant it isn't off-gassing and possibly harming people somewhat. You'd still want to go ahead and paint over it to meet safety standards.
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vishalsinghvs08
I could be wrong here but Option E is still shaky and holds weaker grounds than option C

Conclusion - owners should repaint walls at least every six months, or cover the walls with a different material to meet safety standards

I could weaken it in multiple ways
1. By saying they can do it in 2 years and not 6 month.

>> This is what option C is telling us. That it takes roughly 2 years for the paint to start dissipating into air. Repainting after atleast 2 years is fine, therefore.


2. By saying no matter when you do(6 months or 60 month), it may not impact the safety being discussed because there is no safety concern here

>>This is what option E is telling us. However, i am still not sure of this because its not tied specifically to the conclusion. Amounts of lead that come in contact when? before 6 months(if yes, then please repaint sooner )? after n months(then atleast 6 months is fine)?

My analysis could be wrong and I am open to discuss and learn the correct approach. Thank you

DanTheGMATMan KarishmaB - Experts, please help.

This is what the argument tells us:

The lead seems to rise to the surface of the paint and escape into the building's air supply. Tests show that because of the chemical drying process, the lead is not discernible on the surface until the paint has been on the walls for at least six months.

Options (C) vs (E)

We know that the lead rises to the surface and escapes into the building's air supply. It reaches a discernible level (there might still be some before that but the amount would be too small) on the surface in 6 months so it should be controlled at that time and not allowed to escape into the building's air supply. So it should be repainted before that.

C) The amount of lead found on the surface of the paint after six months remained constant for the next two years.

This does not mean that lead is not escaping from the surface. We are given that it escapes. If the amount is constant, it could be that it is constantly being replenished from the lower layers of the paint. With time, more and more lead is reaching the surface (from the lower layers) while it is escaping from the surface at the same rate.
This option does not mean that we can paint after 2 years and that painting within 6 months is not essential.
If an option had given us reason to believe it then you are right, it would have weakened our argument.

Option (E) says that whatever quantity of lead escapes. it is harmless. Then the owners do not need to repaint etc. Hence option (E) weakens our argument.

Answer (E)
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Because conclusion discusses about safety, only option that weakens the conclusion here is answer choice "E" .
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