ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by environmental disasters. They're kind

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of like unwanted family members. When they knock on your front door, you turn out the

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lights, hide in the basement, and just hope they go away.

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The passage states that in April of 2008, the Committee on Investigations and Oversight

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held a hearing about ATSDR. Which of the following health hazards was under discussion?

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Wow, the answer choices for this question read like a grocery list for a super villain.

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While all of the things on this list are bad news, however, the passage only mentions one of them. Which one?

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Choice (A) tells us its asbestos, everybody's favorite cancer-causing insulation material.

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Nasty as it is, though, asbestos isn't the toxin that the passage talks about.

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(C) suggests drinking water contaminated by lead. Well, okay, it's not suggesting we

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DO SO, it's just saying it might be the answer to this question.

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We're sure that the passage doesn't mention lead poisoned water, though--just as sure

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as we are that won't see lead-flavored Coke on the market any time soon.

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Thanks, choice (D). We really wanted to think about soil drenched in nuclear waste right now.

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As gross and destructive as nuclear contaminated soil is,

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however, it's not the thing this passage focuses on.

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(B) is the one and only answer.

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The passage states explicitly that formaldehyde exposure was the issue under examination.

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What kind of sicko knowingly exposes himself to formaldehyde?

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