Response to May 2025 Article Regarding Environmental Testing

A digital weekly newsletter has written two articles alleging a potential “cancer cluster” at Roanoke College. The first article, published in May 2024, stemmed from an October 2023 TikTok video in which a 2015 alumna stated that she and six of her college friends had been diagnosed with various types of cancer within five years of her graduation year. In the video, the alumna indicated that she had contacted the Virginia Department of Health about her concerns and was dissatisfied with their response. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) define a cancer cluster as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occur within a group of people in a defined geographic area over a specific period of time. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), “Cancer is a group of more than 100 different diseases. Each type of cancer has its own risk factors and causes. True cancer clusters rarely involve more than one type of cancer.” The ACS also reports that cancer cluster investigations rarely reveal a true cause for concern: “To help illustrate this point, in a scientific review of over 500 cancer cluster investigations done over 20 years, only about 1 in 8 found a true increase in cancer rates, and in only one case was a clear cause for the increase found.” Furthermore, the ACS reports “If the excess cancer cases include many different types of cancer over a period of many years, it’s not likely to be a true cancer cluster, or to be caused by a single environmental factor or exposure.” The boundaries of the “defined geographic area” also must be carefully considered, the ACS says: “Moving the boundaries (for example, to make the area larger or smaller) might make it look more or less likely that a cancer cluster exists.” 

Roanoke College’s top priority is the safety and well-being of our community members. When we saw the video and heard that the alumna had reached out to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), we reached out to the VDH to check on any existence and/or status of a report and to ascertain whether the College needed to take any action. The VDH, the official investigating body in such cases, communicated to Roanoke College that there is no evidence for concern about increased cancer rates or a cancer cluster in our community.   

No. We have received no communication that indicates the VDH has changed its position. 

No, prior to the publication of a story from a digital weekly newsletter in May 2024, Roanoke College had never received any official communication from alumni about this topic. Later, in fall 2024, an open letter signed by a group of alumni was sent to the College. It did not provide information about cancer diagnoses, but did ask for an update on testing progress, which the College provided to all signatories.  

In the days and weeks following publication of the first article, which was published in May 2024, Roanoke College administrators consulted with public health officials, cancer epidemiologists and physicians about cancer types, incident rates, risk factors and more. Each expressed skepticism about the cancer cluster assertions made in the article for multiple reasons. Despite that and in an abundance of caution, we contracted with one of Virginia’s largest and most experienced environmental consulting firms, Engineering Consulting Services (ECS) Mid-Atlantic, in late May 2024, to help us determine a scope and timeline for an environmental assessment of our campus. The three experts at ECS who managed our project have 90+ years of combined experience in this area.  

ECS advised testing for two common environmental issues often encountered in residential buildings: lead in drinking water and radon gas. ECS also advised that the College could go a step further and test for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sub-slab vapors. Per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sub-slab vapors come from groundwater and/or soil contaminated by chemicals or petroleum products. Vapors from these chemicals can get inside buildings and, according to the EPA, “Low-level chemical exposures over many years may raise the lifetime risk of cancer or chronic disease.” The College elected to order all the above tests in all residence halls on both the Main Campus and the Elizabeth Campus, including testing for 65 individual VOCs. (Additional testing on some older administrative/academic buildings was also performed.) The testing was conducted in a professional, data-informed and scientific way to ensure thorough and accurate results.  

The overall battery of tests on both our Main Campus and the Elizabeth Campus revealed no systemic ongoing environmental concerns, and certainly nothing that would explain a variety of different cancer diagnoses across a wide spectrum of alumni. ECS, which has conducted similar testing on other campuses, has said that Roanoke College’s results were remarkably good. Any areas that raised concern, although few and isolated, were promptly remediated by the College, even in cases where ECS recommended long-term or repeat testing as opposed to immediate remediation. Summaries of all results can be found on our environmental testing updates page.   

More than 50 sub-slab samples were collected through the floors of 21 residence halls and seven academic/administrative buildings on both campuses. When those samples were analyzed, scientists assessed the VOC levels according to a “screening level” established by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ). That screening level is intentionally set at a conservative level for optimum safety, and when a VOC comes in above that conservative initial checkpoint, a detailed risk assessment is performed.  
 
This detailed risk assessment was conducted by ECS using VDEQ risk assessment methods and software in the Bartlett sample that turned up carbon tetrachloride and the Chalmers sample that turned up Tetrachloroethene (PCE). These risk calculations assume a lifetime exposure to these chemicals (70 years). As such, they are extremely conservative; much more so than a typical one- to four-year college experience. These complete quantitative risk calculations determined that two concentrations – the carbon tetrachloride and PCE - exceeded these conservative risk/hazard thresholds, so ECS recommended remediation.  

Roanoke College received notice of these findings for Bartlett in late September 2024 and had a sub-slab depressurization system (SSDS) installed in Bartlett over Fall Break (mid-October). Roanoke College received notice of these findings for Chalmers in early October and installed an SSDS there during the winter holiday break. An SSDS works by placing a permanent vacuum on the airspace below the building, thereby preventing any soil vapors from entering the building. Per ECS, “this was a very rapid response to the situation.” 

Testing identified chloroform in these buildings, but ECS conducted a detailed risk assessment and concluded that the chloroform did not exceed the risk/hazard threshold, and therefore no remediation or other further action was required. 

Again, Roanoke College followed all guidance provided by ECS. ECS did not recommend relocating the students because the health effects in question are associated with chronic (long-term) exposure rather than acute exposures. (Please see the response above regarding the conservative nature of these risk calculations). Remediation systems were installed in a time frame that ECS considered to be an appropriate response that was both protective of the students’ health and did not unnecessarily uproot them and interfere with their studies.   

Although the article states that this is “not a question E.C.S.’s reports even feign to answer,” ECS in fact explained this to the reporter in advance of the article’s publication. 

Those findings were isolated to those two buildings (among the 28 that were tested). These two residence halls are not adjacent to one another, and other nearby buildings in the immediate vicinity did not have VOC detections. Because of that and the disparity in the chemicals driving the risk that were detected (PCE and carbon tetrachloride), ECS determined that no large areas of soil or groundwater contamination appear likely to be present.  
  
ECS said, “Hypothetically, a release of this nature may be attributable to solvents being poured down drains decades ago that may or may not ever reach groundwater or be transported beyond the building’s footprint. Both chemicals were used as degreasers, cleaning solvents, and in paint and paint strippers. Installation of sub-slab depressurization units has proven to be a very effective remediation in these situations. Since the remedy is in place, no further investigations appear to be warranted.”  

No. Over the past year, since testing commenced, the College has followed the transparency pledge that President Frank Shushok Jr. made to our community immediately following the first article. More specifically, in our first community statement, published May 28, 2024, President Shushok said, “I promise we will be transparent every step of the way and will provide updates here.” Over the next several months, the testing process went through multiple stages including sample collection, lab analysis, re-testing and additional analysis. While we waited for a complete report to share with our community, we published three updates (in July, August and September) explaining the status of the process. On Dec. 5, 2024, we held an information session open to all students, faculty and staff that included representatives from ECS and the Virginia Department of Health. The following day, we published a lengthy summary of results to our webpage, emailed that summary to students, faculty and staff, and made the full, detailed results available by electronic download to all students, faculty and staff. Since then, ECS has conducted additional and follow-up testing, and we shared those results in a community statement on March 21, 2025.  

No, that is 100% false. The College has followed ECS recommendations for all testing conducted and never asked ECS not to perform certain tests. Honesty and integrity are values that our institution and administrators hold most strongly, and we are greatly disturbed by any allegation that the College has abandoned those values or aimed to deceive our community in any way. Although both the College and ECS answered this question for the reporter in advance of the second story’s publication, this false allegation was still included in the article.  

Because they conducted sub-slab vapor testing, which is a better method for this purpose. Volatile organic compound (VOC) testing was performed by ECS during the sub-slab soil gas testing. As a standard industry practice, indoor air sampling is less typically performed because sub-slab sampling is better suited to unambiguously identify VOCs originating from impacted subsurface soil and groundwater. Because of the sensitivity of the analysis used for indoor air samples, those sample results may be clouded by a wide variety of extraneous detections of commercial products that may be used by the building occupants, such as ordinary cleaning solutions, off-gassing of plastics, aerosol propellants, dry-cleaned clothes, and other household products. For these reasons, ECS did not recommend indoor air sampling to Roanoke College because they believe that sub-slab results are better data to evaluate this exposure pathway. In addition, it is important to remember that Roanoke College and ECS were responding to concerns about cancer. Identifying VOCs originating from impacted subsurface soil and groundwater is a more relevant test for this concern than indoor air quality tests. 

No. The College’s facilities staff worked with an outside contractor to conduct a mold assessment in one building, Miller Hall, in spring 2023. President Shushok was not aware of that testing when this information was provided to the reporter in 2024. 

We want everyone in the Roanoke College community to feel safe and informed about these allegations. Updates will be published on the environmental testing updates page of our website and will be emailed if warranted.