GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Oil and gas companies may be pumping harmful chemicals into the air according to a new study. Some of which can cause cancer and other harmful affects.

Numerous complaints from residents in oil and gas communities, including Battlement Mesa and Silt, prompted the study. Behind the study is an environmental group called Global Community Monitor. They say oil companies are to blame for the harmful chemicals.

The study is titled "Gassed!" It's claiming to have found 22 harmful toxins and carcinogens in the air surrounding oil and gas communities. Some of them, 3,000 times higher than what's considered safe by the EPA.

"We came across some evidence that [the toxins] are associated most probably with the fracking process because they are not naturally occurring chemicals that show up along side the chemicals that make up natural gas and oil deposits," said Denny Larson with Global Community Monitor.

Larson said the study started after communities near oil and gas sites in Colorado and New Mexico complained of odor and health problems. They thoroughly trained residents to use specialized devices to capture air samples to send in for lab testing. The samples taken in Silt were found to be high in hydrogen sulfide, a gas considered to be highly poisonous.

"The results in that sample are more than 185 times higher than are set by the US EPA to estimate what would cause an increase risk of serious health affects," said Larson.

The results are not even being recognized by the Western Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association. They're deeming the study to be improperly conducted with exaggerated results.

"Vigilante air studies are ill advised for the same reason that vigilante law enforcement is illegal. The results of both are unreliable," said David Ludlam with the Western Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

The association believes studies, like Global Community Monitor's, should be left to trained professionals. They say the residents in charge of taking air samples didn't have the know how to do it accurately.

"The people who specialize in air quality studies are people that have devoted their entire careers and lives to that field," said Ludlam.

Global Community Monitor stands by its study. It hopes the oil and gas industry changes its ways and the government forms stricter regulations.

If you'd like to read the report, you can find it here.