{"id":419196,"date":"2026-07-31T07:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419196\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:47:10","slug":"california-community-suspects-environmental-link-to-rare-cancer-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419196\/","title":{"rendered":"California community suspects environmental link to rare cancer cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 A Southern California community is looking for answers after an extremely rare form of cancer has killed at least six children since 2013.<\/p>\n

Families in Ladera Ranch<\/a> have been pushing for state officials to investigate any potential environmental factors that could be the cause of dozens of cancer cases, including Ewing sarcoma. The bone and soft-tissue cancer is so rare that it affects only 200 to 240 children and teens nationwide each year.<\/p>\n

Another rare form of cancer reported in Ladera Ranch has been synovial sarcoma, which affects fewer than 1,000 Americans each year.<\/p>\n

Ladera Ranch resident Kira Davis joined “Katie Pavlich Tonight<\/a>” on Thursday, saying residents have been dealing with this for more than a decade, and no one has been able to provide answers.<\/p>\n

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“There’s a lot of shrugs from all the people in charge,” Davis said. “But just now, I think with social media, people are starting to be really concerned.”<\/p>\n

The situation has now drawn federal attention, as First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli\u00a0has called on the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> to investigate.<\/p>\n

“There has been an unusual cluster of pediatric cancers in the Ladera Ranch community. I am requesting that EPA conduct an appropriate investigation into whether there are any environmental causes, and whether any federal environmental laws are implicated,” he wrote on X<\/a> on July 16.<\/p>\n

And the situation isn’t only impacting humans.<\/p>\n

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“My dog has cancer<\/a>. She just developed a brain tumor\u00a0out of nowhere last year and went blind. And she’s only seven or eight,” Davis said. “I thought, ‘Wow,\u00a0maybe I have bad luck with dogs.'”<\/p>\n

However, after she posted about it in a community chat group, Davis said she got “dozens and dozens of posts” from others saying their pets had become ill, too.<\/p>\n

“It’s a dire situation here,” she said.<\/p>\n

Currently, multiple studies and investigations are underway to figure out the cause of the cancer\u00a0cluster, with suspicion focused on the use of herbicides and pesticides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We’re one of the last\u00a0suburbs in Southern California to use these particular pesticides. They are harsher chemicals,\u00a0older chemicals,” Davis said. “Most of the communities have moved to organics.”<\/p>\n

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Ladera Ranch has placed a temporary ban\u00a0on the use of toxic chemical<\/a> products as a local advisory committee reviews\u00a0landscaping maintenance practices.<\/p>\n

“We would love for this to stop,” she said.\u00a0“We’re not saying it is the pesticides, but if there’s even a chance it’s connected to that,\u00a0why wouldn’t we switch? Why wouldn’t we? It should be so easy, and yet it’s so hard.”<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(NewsNation) \u2014 A Southern California community is looking for answers after an extremely rare form of cancer has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4900,167580,161055,72803,167579,26271,161058],"class_list":["post-419196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cancer","tag-environmental-factors","tag-ewing-sarcoma","tag-katie-pavlich","tag-kira-davis","tag-ladera-ranch","tag-synovial-sarcoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}