Growing up, a group of eight friends in Groves, Texas, had never heard of ethylene oxide, the carcinogenic gas that poured out from a chemical plant in their neighborhood. Now three of them are fighting cancer.

The Intercept obtained an air study of ethylene oxide emissions from that chemical plant, now owned by a Thai company called Indorama Ventures. It reveals that the plant’s emissions of the toxic gas pose a cancer risk that far exceeds Environmental Protection Agency safety standards and presents an elevated risk across an area of more than 1,000 square miles.