Sixteen cancer sufferers and their families have sued German medical device company B. Braun, alleging that emissions of the carcinogenic gas ethylene oxide from one of the company’s plants caused their illnesses.

The lawsuits, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, claim that B. Braun’s plant in Hanover Township in Lehigh County emitted Ethylene oxide, or EtO, a carcinogenic chemical used to sterilize medical equipment and that the neighboring residents were exposed to the toxic gas.