I have a hard time believing there's no one around the Intel plant in Oregon who is sick," said Marcy Brandenburg, a New Mexico real estate agent who used to own a coffee shop near Fab 11X. "I think they just don't know what's wrong with them."

Not so in New Mexico, where suspicion and accusations have dogged Intel for more than two decades. Residents near Intel's factory outside Albuquerque, a facility identical in many ways to its Oregon operations, complain that Intel emissions poison their air.

They blame Fab 11X for everything from bad smells to fatal lung diseases, and their concerns... See more