To allay public concern about chemicals that are leaking into a river

Question

To allay public concern about chemicals that are leaking into a river from a chemical company's long-established dump, a company representative said, "Federal law requires that every new chemical be tested for safety before it is put onto the market. This is analogous to the federal law mandating testing of every pharmaceutical substance for safety."

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the representative's implied argument that the public need not be concerned about the leak?

(A) When pharmaceutical substances are tested for safety pursuant to federal requirements, a delay is imposed on the entry of potentially lifesaving substances onto the market.

(B) Leakage from the dump has occurred in noticeable amounts only in the last few months.

(C) Before the federal law requiring testing of nonpharmaceutical chemicals went into effect recently, there were 40,000 such chemicals
being manufactured, many of them dangerous.

(D) The concentration of the chemicals leaking into the river is diluted, first by rainwater and then by the water in the river.

(E) The water in the river is murky because of the runoff of silt from a number of nearby construction projects.

sayan640 · Answer

C should be the answer. When testing of non pharmaceutical chemicals were mandated , many of them were found to be dangerous. 
Same thing can happen in this case of pharmaceutical chemicals.
They can be dangerous too.
Looks like C weakens the argument and is the answer.

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Akkiiii · Answer

Option (B) weakens the argument by suggesting that noticeable leakage has occurred only recently, indicating a potential problem that may not have been adequately addressed by existing testing requirements.

Rohan30 · Answer

Can't seem to understand this question. Can someone post an official explanation for the question ?

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lokantagiotama · Answer

Why option C is correct?
It said that "before...requiring testing" that means the dangerous materials are manufactured before the testing. Drawing paralel to the chemical company, we know the testing is already required.

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Ami0Trafalgar · Answer

Can someone provide the official explanation as to why C is correct. I am equally confused between B & C and marked C only because of the time frame being showcased in both the options.

mayankdgmat · Answer

As  GMATNinja  says don't miss key modifiers. This is perfect example, here key modifiers is "company's long-established dump".

So if dump contains large no of chemical dated back from pre mandate, it is quite possible that leak will concern public. Hence option (c) is our answer.

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unraveled · Answer

Specific to you query I would try to answer.

To allay public concern about chemicals that are leaking into a river from a  chemical company's long-established dump , a company representative said, "Federal law requires that every  new chemical be tested for safety  before it is put onto the market. This is  analogous  to the federal law mandating  testing of every pharmaceutical substance for safety ."

(C)  Before the federal law requiring testing  of nonpharmaceutical chemicals went into  effect recently , there were  40,000 such chemicals 
being manufactured, many of them  dangerous .

See the blue text as key points around which the passage is built.
- Long established dump
- New chemical tested for safety under federal law
- Analogy(a red flag in itself) of testing pharmaceutical substance for safety

Now the law is for new chemicals. But as per C there are 40K chemicals many of which are dangerous that may have been already dumped. And this is over the fact that the law came into effect recently.

Hence the concerns still remain as it is. Note that it is also better than A.  
Thus, it is the best answer.

HTHs.

VerbalBot · Answer

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To allay public concern about chemicals that are leaking into a river

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