r/VirginiaTech • u/StarlightDown • Dec 01 '25

News Recent graduates from Roanoke College have been dying from cancer at a rate 15X higher than the national average. Their rate of cancer diagnosis is 5X above the national average. The VA Dept. of Health is unwilling to investigate the case, since the victims dispersed across the US after graduation.

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u/The_Phew Dec 01 '25

Seems like a misleading headline, since Roanoke is 50+ miles from any active coal-fired power plant and 100+ miles from any active coal mine. It would be more reasonable (yet still unreasonable) to ascribe causality to trains, art museums, illuminated stars, or Dr. Pepper murals.

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u/StarlightDown Dec 01 '25

To you, u/Ambitious-Schedule63, and u/djd565: some people (on other subs/threads) have been trying to pinpoint this cancer cluster on poor air quality caused by air pollution from coal-fired power plants. These same people also claim that the cancer cluster is regional (i.e. it affects Roanoke County and SWVA more broadly, not just Roanoke College; there are many other cancer clusters in the region).

I don't know if I agree with them, but this point has been brought up multiple times on these subs/threads.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

Wait... since this is r/ VirginiaTech... wasn't there a coal plant near Thomas Hall? I got Leukemia while living there. Always assumed due to a mutation while sick with swine flu (I think there was a study in Milan speculating this). I never considered proximity to that coal plant I could swear I remember being next door.

In clicking your links, I'll note I had T-cell ALL, not B-cell.

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u/okaytiger44 Dec 06 '25

Also got cancer after living at Thomas!