All of the following are criteria used by EPA to characterize a hazardous waste, except:

• A. The waste typically contains toxic chemicals at levels that could pose a threat to human health and the environment if improperly managed. Such wastes are known as toxic listed wastes.
• B. The waste contains such dangerous chemicals that it could pose a threat to human health and the environment even when properly managed. These wastes are fatal to humans and animals even in low doses. Such wastes are known as acute hazardous wastes
• C. The waste contains small quantities of hazardous waste that is solely used for testing and to characterize the waste.
• D. The waste typically exhibits one of the four characteristics of hazardous waste: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.

Answer: (C)

Hazardous waste is identified by either listing or by characteristics. Wastes are hazardous if they appear on the EPA’s listed waste lists (F-, K-, P-, or U- lists) or if they exhibit one of the four characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity (the Toxicity Characteristic). The statement about wastes that are "solely used for testing" doesn’t correspond to any EPA criterion for classifying hazardous waste. Testing-related materials aren’t a recognized category for establishing hazard status; they may be hazardous if they meet listing or characteristic criteria, but there isn’t a separate criterion based on being used only for testing. The other descriptions align with how the EPA classifies hazardous waste, so that option is the exception.