The Biocarb Company wants to build a sterilization plant to treat cont

Question

The Biocarb Company wants to build a sterilization plant to treat contaminated medical waste in a city neighborhood where residents and environmental activists fear that such a facility will pollute the area. Biocarb’s president argues that the operation of the plant cannot cause pollution because the waste would be sterile after processing by the plant. He claims that after exposure for an hour to superheated steam in the autoclave, such refuse would be far cleaner than food prepared in the cleanest kitchen.

The president’s argument depends on which one of the following assumptions?

(A) Environmental activists believe that waste treated with steam will not pollute.

(B) Handing of the waste before treatment in the proposed facility will not pose a threat of pollution to the area.

(C) Fear of pollution is the only argument against construction of an autoclave facility for medical waste.

(D) No others besides environmental activists are concerned about pollution hazards that can result from processing medical waste.

(E) Treatment by superheated steam represents the surest method of sterilization.

GmatKnightTutor · Accepted Answer

This is one that could, I daresay, be a bit tricky to get a hold of. You have to be super clear about what's going on. You have residents who are worried about pollution from the facility. You have a president saying that the facility's waste will all be sterile and unable to cause pollution therefore.

A question that may pop into one's mind at this point is regarding the pollution that may be caused IN ORDER to make the waste sterile in the first place.

The Biocarb Company wants to build a sterilization plant to treat contaminated medical waste in a city neighborhood where residents and environmental activists fear that such a facility will pollute the area. Biocarb’s president argues that the operation of the plant cannot cause pollution because the waste would be sterile after processing by the plant. He claims that after exposure for an hour to superheated steam in the autoclave, such refuse would be far cleaner than food prepared in the cleanest kitchen.

The president’s argument depends on which one of the following assumptions?

(A) Environmental activists believe that waste treated with steam will not pollute.
Be super clear about what's going on. The president is the one who is making the argument. The activists' beliefs are irrelevant to it.

(B) Handing of the waste before treatment in the proposed facility will not pose a threat of pollution to the area.
Yes, this is the crux of the problem. It's all well and good to say that the waste is sterile but what about the process in order to make it sterile. Does THAT cause any pollution? We need to assume that the process does not cause pollution as well for the president's argument to work.

(C) Fear of pollution is the only argument against construction of an autoclave facility for medical waste.
Nothing to do with the president's argument.

(D) No others besides environmental activists are concerned about pollution hazards that can result from processing medical waste.
Irrelevant again.

(E) Treatment by superheated steam represents the surest method of sterilization.

tsatomic · Answer

The basic argument between the two sides can be stated as:
Activists:  The plant will cause pollution 
Company president:  The plant cannot cause pollution because it will sterilize waste.
 
The assumption (answer) is a point which, if proven wrong, will invalidate the company president's argument. It will deal with the topic of how pollution could be caused  even if  the plant sterilizes waste.

(A) Environmental activists believe that waste treated with steam will not pollute.
 Incorrect. Activists are only saying the plant will pollute. Moreover what they're saying cannot be something the company president's argument depends on.
 
(B) Handing of the waste before treatment in the proposed facility will not pose a threat of pollution to the area.
 Correct. This deals with how pollution could be caused even with waste processing and sterilization. In other words, if the negated version of this statement is true i.e. "...waste before treatment WILL POSE a threat..." the company president's argument falls apart.

(C) Fear of pollution is the only argument against construction of an autoclave facility for medical waste.
 Incorrect. This cannot be an assumption because it does not explain how pollution could be caused.

(D) No others besides environmental activists are concerned about pollution hazards that can result from processing medical waste.
 Incorrect. Having more concerned people doesn't explain how the company president could be wrong.
 
(E) Treatment by superheated steam represents the surest method of sterilization.
  Incorrect. We are not talking about effective methods.

HarshaGM · Answer

The correct answer is option (B).

Understanding the passage:

1. The Biocarb Company (TBC) wants to set up a sterilisation plant to treat contaminated medical waste. 
2. It wants to set this up in a neighborhood whose residents and environmental activists are fearful that the facility will pollute the area
3. TCB's president claims: 
 a) The operations of the plant cannot cause pollution. 
 b) Reason: 
 (i) The waste would be sterile after processing by the plant
 (ii) After exposure for an hour to steam in an autoclave, the waste (refuse) would be cleaner than food prepared in the cleanest kitchen

Question:  Find the assumption in the president's argument.

Thought Process: 
By Definition, we know that an assumption has to be true for the conclusion to hold true. Hence, a valid assumption if negated should break or invalidate the conclusion. So, one fail-safe method to identify the underlying assumptions is to identify the conditions that would break the conclusion.

In what scenario would the operations of the plant pollute the area?

Given that the output waste will not pollute the area.

Condition 1:  What if the input contaminated medical waste pollutes the area?

In a processing plant, medical waste (input) will be stored in the area, before processing by the plant. If this input waste pollutes the area, then TBC's president's conclusion would fail.

Assumption 1:  The input i.e. the contaminated medical waste, prior to being processed will not pollute the area.

Condition 2:  We do not know about any other possible pollutants from the plant. What if, as an example, the materials used to generate steam for the autoclave (say, coal) end up causing pollution in the area? Even in this scenario, the plant will end up polluting the area, though not from medical waste, but from other pollutants.

Assumption 2:  Medical Waste apart, there are no other possible pollutants generated from the operations of the plant, which can pollute the area.

So, we have arrived at 2 possible assumptions. Let us study the answer choices.

(A) Environmental activists believe that waste treated with steam will not pollute.

Irrelevant - the belief of environmental activists has nothing to do with the president's conclusion. The President has not assumed that 'activists believe that waste treated with steam will not pollute'. In fact, the President has gone on to state this in his argument (indirect inference - "cleaner than food from the cleanest kitchen => will not pollute). It is therefore not an assumption.

(B) Handing of the waste before treatment in the proposed facility will not pose a threat of pollution to the area.

This matches our assumption 1. If the input waste before treatment will pollute the area, the conclusion breaks. Correct choice.

(C) Fear of pollution is the only argument against construction of an autoclave facility for medical waste. 
This is a true statement basis the passage but not the assumption. It is true that the fear of pollution is the only mentioned argument against construction of this facility. But it is not the assumption on which the conclusion depends. Irrelevant to the argument.

( D) No others besides environmental activists are concerned about pollution hazards that can result from processing medical waste.

Irrelevant. This has nothing to do with the argument.

(E) Treatment by superheated steam represents the surest method of sterilization.

Irrelevant.

Even if we negate this option, we get - Treatment by superheated steam is not the surest method of sterilisation. It does not imply however that superheated steam treatment is not good enough to prevent pollution. Maybe superheated steam treatment is 95% effective, and there is another method that is 99% effective with regard to pollution.

It is surely possible that this 95% effective superheated steam treatment is more than sufficient from a pollution perspective. Hence, we cannot definitely say that this plant will cause pollution. In other words, this assumption if negated, does not definitely break the conclusion. Hence, not the correct choice.

Cheers!

Rashed12 · Answer

If we negate the statement, it would be - treatment by superheated steam does not represent the surest method of sterilization. So, there has a loophole to make the environment polluted. In that sense, E is correct.

Why is my logic invalid? Kindly help me to find out my mistakes.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The Biocarb Company wants to build a sterilization plant to treat cont

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