Columnist: There are certain pesticides that, even though they have been banned for use in the United States for nea...

Victoria on May 11, 2020

Hi @kenken,

The key point to focus on is that the columnist concludes that continuing to manufacture these banned pesticides in the United States poses serious health risks to American consumers.

Why? Because the pesticides are exported to other countries where they are used on agricultural products which are often imported back into the United States.

If other countries besides the U.S. manufactured these pesticides, then the columnist could not definitively conclude that American manufacturing posed health risks to consumers. Even if the U.S. stopped manufacturing these pesticides tomorrow, the pesticides would still find their way into the country on agricultural products as other countries would continue to manufacture the pesticides.

In this way, manufacture outside of the United States weakens the columnist's ability to conclude that American manufacturing poses a health risk to American consumers.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.