A killer in the classroom: Ohio schools fail to test for radon, leaving kids vulnerable
The article was originally published in The Columbus Dispatch with support from our 2025 National Fellowship and Dennis A. Hunt Fund.
A sign posted outside the former River Valley High School near Marion warns passersby to keep out. The school has been shuttered since 2003 after a cancer cluster was linked to it in the 1990s.
Max Filby
Whether Ohio students are inhaling an invisible killer in the classroom is a matter of miles, school funding and district priorities —something Kim Tolnar knows all too well.
A 1983 graduate of Marion's former River Valley High School, Tolnar spent years searching for a reason why she and other graduates developed leukemia. But answers never came.
Now, more than 30 years later, odorless, colorless radon gas is giving Tolnar more insight into what might have caused her cancer.
"There's no question in my mind," Tolnar said. "We were exposed to something that ultimately gave us cancer."
The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended schools test for radon since 1989 and the Ohio Department of Health advises they do so every five years, after renovations or when heating and cooling systems are replaced. But, a Dispatch investigation found most districts fail to regularly test their buildings, leaving students at risk of radon exposure and serious illnesses such as lung cancer and leukemia.
Columbus City Schools, the largest district in Ohio, does not routinely test for radon and neither does Cincinnati Public Schools. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District began testing for radon in 2024, officials said.
Likewise, The Dispatch found a mixed bag of radon testing in Franklin County districts.
While 11 states require radon testing in schools, including West Virginia and Iowa, Ohio is not one of them. During state budget negotiations earlier this year, Ohio lawmakers didn't approve a request for $15 million to help test schools for radon.
Local and state leaders must do more to ensure children are safe, said Stuart Lieberman, a New Jersey-based environmental attorney who attended Capital University Law School in Columbus. Lieberman represented homeowners who discovered their mitigation systems were faulty in one of the nation's only class action lawsuits regarding radon.
"This could really be a terrible thing," he said. "Young children are not just small people. Their bodies react differently to toxins and so it's very important to test schools."
Tolnar, now 60, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 1993 and around the same time, so too were nine other Marion students and recent grads, The Dispatch previously reported.
As part of a search for answers, multiple schools were tested for radon and four tested positive for high levels of the gas.
One of them was Tolnar's elementary school and another was the high school she attended, Dispatch reporting at the time shows. The highest levels found in one of the Marion schools was 23.9 picocuries per liter, or nearly six times the EPA's remediation level of 4.
No test can link a specific cancer to radon. But when the leukemia cases first appeared, many questioned whether radon or a former military depot at the site of the high school and middle school was to blame.
At the time, just one 1990 study had linked radon to leukemia in Great Britain. Since then, though, Oregon State University research has found a connection between leukemia and the toxic, naturally occurring gas that seeps into buildings through their porous foundations.
The study examined levels of radon across 18 years in 700 counties in 14 states, though it did not include Ohio, said Matthew Bozigar, an environmental epidemiologist at Oregon State who led the study. The research found a correlation between leukemia and radon, even in areas where levels of the gas were lower than what the EPA recommends for mitigation to prevent health issues.
Already known as the second-leading cause of lung cancer, Bozigar said it makes sense radon could also cause leukemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer, because oxygen enters the bloodstream through the lungs.
Advancements in research make a critical case for testing in schools, said Dr. David Carbone, head of thoracic oncology and chair of lung cancer research at Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital.
But until more schools start testing regularly for radon, an untold number of Ohio students may be exposed to the deadly gas every time they sit down at their desk.
"The big unknown is exposure in schools," Carbone said. "People spend a lot of their lives at work or at school and many of those locations are not tested at all."
'You've got to fix it': How Ohio schools fall short on radon
When it comes to environmental dangers in the classroom, schools have long done everything they could to safeguard students from toxins such as asbestos.
Just this September, an elementary in Solon, Ohio, closed for several days to remediate after testing found high levels of asbestos in the building. And when it comes to asbestos, both state and federal law set standards for identifying and removing or managing the toxic substance.
But radon is a different story, said David Hill, president of the nonprofit Indoor Environments Association, which advocates for radon testing and indoor air quality.
"We don't want them exposed to solid things like asbestos, lead and mold but radioactive air is perfectly fine" Hill said. "Every one of those except radon is going to be taken care of."
Schools in Westerville, for example, are tested for radon every five years, a spokesperson told The Dispatch. But just 16 miles south in Reynoldsburg, radon testing was put on hold after a 2024 levy failed despite 2023 testing that found high levels of the gas requiring mitigation, a spokesperson said.
A Columbus City Schools spokesperson told The Dispatch the district had not conducted widespread radon testing in 35 years because its schools are well-ventilated. Documents obtained through a public records request showed a room at Beck Street Elementary returned test results of 17 picocuries per liter for radon in 2016 before it was taken over by South Columbus Preparatory Academy in 2020.
At least three districts, including those in Hilliard, Grandview Heights and Grove City told The Dispatch they don't currently test for radon. Whitehall City Schools declined to say whether it tests, though a records request for results yielded no test results on file.
Both Bexley City Schools and Groveport Madison plan to test for radon in buildings this year. Pickerington Local schools conducted testing in 2020 and mitigated two buildings, a spokesperson said.
Although radon is odorless and colorless, when asked whether Worthington Schools tests for it, a spokesperson said the district always investigates strange smells and that buildings are equipped with detectors for carbon monoxide, an entirely different gas. And while radon can affect the first floor of any building — even those without basements — a spokesperson for Olentangy Local said the district only tests Shanahan Middle School because it is the only school with a basement.
Hamilton Township schools, New Albany schools and Licking Heights schools did not respond to multiple requests to comment.
"It speaks to the lack of awareness of radon as a serious health issue," Bozigar said.
Testing for radon in schools is simply "good public policy," said Hill, and something that should be done to promote "the greater good" of children.
While a lack of funding in districts such as Reynoldsburg is part of the testing problem, Hill said it shouldn't be. Remediating for radon should be built into a school's budget the way any other building maintenance or repair would need to be, Hill said.
"When the roof goes bad on a school, what happens?" Hill said. "You've got to fix it. You can't let them go in there... I see this as the same thing."
Students watch as part of the school yard is dug up at River Valley High School in search of what was giving off radiation in 1997. Ten students were diagnosed with leukemia more than 30 years ago. Four district schools tested positive for high levels of radon.
FRED SQUILLANTE
'Evidence is growing': How much radon is lurking in Ohio schools?
Like radon testing in homes, Hill said one school may have dangerous levels of the gas and another might not have much of it at all.
A classroom in Massachusetts, where Hill said testing is mandated, once returned results of more than 1,000 picocuries per liter. That's 250-times EPA's recommended remediation level of 4 picocuries per liter.
"Children's health, anatomy and biology is so much more sensitive to radiation," Bozigar said. "This evidence is growing...(It's) critical to get all schools to test."
In Marion schools, no conclusive cause —be it the radon or the military depot— was ever provided for the leukemia cluster. Due to the cancer cases, the high school was closed in 2003 and moved to a new location after the federal government agreed to pay $15 million toward a new $43 million campus.
Leukemia deaths in Marion increased 122% between 1966 and 1995, according to one study by the Ohio Department of Health.
Fewer than two cases would be expected in the Marion area from the late 1960s through the late 1990s, another study found. But, 10 cases were discovered among current and former students at the time.
One of them was Tolnar.
Kim Tolnar was diagnosed with leukemia aroundin 1993, almost exactly 10 years after she graduated from River Valley High School in Marion. Nine others were also found to have leukemia, The Dispatch reported at the time. Although no definitive cause was found, many considered radon and a former military depot at the site of the school.
Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch
When Tolnar was growing up, she said she loved going to school. Looking back on it now, her feelings have soured and she wishes more had been done to make sure classrooms in Marion were safe.
After Tolnar was diagnosed with leukemia 32 years ago, she was forced to uproot her life and move to a Seattle hospital where she spent more than a year fighting off the disease. She underwent a bone marrow transplant and lost her hair.
Though decades have now passed, Tolnar still feels everything her cancer has stolen from her.
Her leukemia struck the year after she and her husband married, cutting short their honeymoon period. Radiation used to treat her cancer prevented her from ever having kids. And she had to get both of her hips and knees replaced because the cancer and treatment for it wore them down.
"I remember what I went through because every step I take reminds me," she said. "It's been tough."
Even though the cancer upended Tolnar's life, she hasn't let it rob her of her voice.
Tolnar said she's made it a point to speak out about the Marion cancer cluster. While there's no going back in time to prevent it, Tolnar said school districts should do anything they can to make sure what happened in Marion never happens again.
And if districts are unwilling to shell out the necessary funds to test their buildings radon, Tolnar said it's the students and their families who will be forced to pay the heaviest toll of all.
"We're exposed to things and we have no idea." she said. "You may pay the price for it later."