This story is jointly reported by Brenda Goodman of WebMD and Andy Miller of Georgia Health News.

July 23, 2019 -- Local residents and their elected officials in metro Atlanta are responding with concern after learning that a cancer-causing gas could be drifting through the air near their homes, schools, and workplaces.

On Friday, WebMD and Georgia Health News revealed that Georgia had three census tracts the EPA identified as having higher cancer risks because of a toxic gas called ethylene oxide. All of the census tracts are in metro Atlanta: Two are in the Smyrna area west of the city, and one in Covington, east of Atlanta.

In Smyrna, the plant that releases ethylene oxide is called Sterigenics. In Covington, the plant is known as BD, formerly Bard. Nationally, 109 census tracts are at risk for greater cases of cancer largely due to exposure to ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment and make other kinds of products like antifreeze.

On various social media platforms, residents and public officials shared their concerns and questions. Many of their comments centered on the fact that the EPA did little to publicize what it found out about the cancer dangers.

Local governments in Smyrna and Covington posted statements to their websites to reassure residents that although they were also learning about the problem for the first time, they were starting to work on it.

“I am incredibly shocked, terrified, and enraged to learn about this plant,” said one woman who posted to the public Stop Sterigenics Facebook page. Stop Sterigenics is a group of citizens from Willowbrook, IL, which is home to a separate Sterigenics location. They organized last August after learning of the ethylene oxide pollution and higher cancer risk in their own community.

Stop Sterigenics posted a new welcome message Monday for Atlanta-area members who were just joining.

“So many questions,” said one man who posted on the Facebook page for the Newton Citizen, the local newspaper in Covington, which posted the story as a media partner of Georgia Health News. “So the EPA produces a list of 109 census tracts where airborne toxins have elevated the cancer risk (useful!) but then does … nothing with it?” Not useful!” he wrote, “What else don’t we know?”