Sentence Correction

Consumers may not think of household cleaning
products to be hazardous substances, but many of
them can be harmful to health, especially if they are
used improperly.
(Al Consumers may not think of household cleaning
products to be
(Bl Consumers may not think of household cleaning
products being
(Cl A consumer may not think of their household
cleaning products being
(Dl A consumer may not think of household cleaning
products as
(El Household cleaning products may not be
thoughtof, by consumers, as


[spoiler]OA: D[/spoiler]

I guessed the answer correctly but my question is that - Is there no necessity for ".....to be hazardous and ...can be harmful to health"- be parallel since they are have the "but" parallel marker?

Is D correct because 'them' in 'many of them' correctly refers to hazardous substances instead of consumers? D uses singular form of consumer.

The correct idiom is --- Think of "X" as "Y"

Also in A,B, C & E- Consumers are plural and this creates Pronoun ambiguity

The "them" in the non-underlined part of the sentence refers to hazardous substances.

Only option D corrects it by using singular form - Consumer

tejaswini0712 wrote: I guessed the answer correctly but my question is that - Is there no necessity for ".....to be hazardous and ...can be harmful to health"- be parallel since they are have the "but" parallel marker?

A consumer may not think of household cleaning products as hazardous substances, but many of them can be harmful to health.
Here, but connects two independent clauses, each with its own subject and verb.
The modifiers in these two clauses do not need to be perfectly parallel.
In the first clause, as hazardous substances serves as an ADVERB, describing HOW a consumer MAY NOT THINK of household cleaning products.
In the second clause, harmful to health serves as an ADJECTIVE, describing the actual NATURE of many household cleaning products.
It makes perfect sense to contrast how a consumer THINKS OF household cleaning products with how these products ACTUALLY ARE.
Thus, do not eliminate the answer choice.

Thanks Mitch. This makes much more sense now.