{"id":777789,"date":"2026-07-22T12:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777789\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T12:12:15","slug":"orange-county-residents-demand-answers-over-cluster-of-rare-child-cancer-cases-in-ladera-ranch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777789\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County residents demand answers over cluster of rare child cancer cases in Ladera Ranch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of Orange County residents gathered at a community meeting demanding answers after several cases of children in Ladera Ranch were diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in recent years.<\/p>\n

Since 2007, around nine children living in the upscale Ladera Ranch area have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma,<\/a> a rare tumor of the tissues that usually affects children and young adults.<\/p>\n

The small community has approximately 26,000 residents. Some residents have raised concerns over toxic pesticide use in the community as a possible cause.<\/p>\n

Brian Dalton lost his daughter, Lily Dalton, 23, to a rare form of cancer in January. Lily spent a lot of time in Ladera Ranch growing up and her family lived just a few miles away.<\/p>\n

\"LilyLily Dalton, 23, died from a rare form of cancer in January 2026. (Dalton Family)\"BrianBrian Dalton, who lost his daughter, Lily Dalton to a rare form of cancer, speaks at the Ladera Ranch community meeting on July 21, 2026. (KTLA)\"HundredsHundreds of Ladera Ranch residents gathered at a community meeting on July 21, 2026, demanding answers and an investigation into the cause of a string of child cancer diagnoses. (KTLA)\"HundredsHundreds of Ladera Ranch residents gathered at a community meeting on July 21, 2026, demanding answers and an investigation into the cause of a string of child cancer diagnoses. (KTLA)<\/p>\n

Three days after college graduation, Lily was diagnosed with one of the rarest cancers in the world \u2013 desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), which carries the Ewing sarcoma gene fusion, linking her disease to the same genetic abnormality found in other recent Ladera Ranch cancer cases.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a community meeting at Ladera Ranch Middle School was packed with concerned residents demanding answers and a thorough investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want another mother holding her child\u2019s hand through endless treatments, praying for one more birthday, planning a funeral instead of a future,\u201d Brian said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Resident Kari Berry lost her husband, Bret Berry, a few years ago. He spent many of his days on sports fields, voluntarily coaching local children\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

Kari spoke at the meeting, saying that all the time her husband spent outdoors, he was unknowingly ingesting pesticides daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids were 10 and 14, and they weren\u2019t able to make the memories like I did with him,\u201d Kari said. \u201cWe moved here from Costa Mesa, where we didn\u2019t have those poisons sprayed in our backyards and in our kids\u2019 faces. And these guys with hazmat suits improperly spraying this and they don\u2019t take the wind advisories into play. They still spray it.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to \u201cconduct an appropriate investigation to determine if there are any environmental factors causing this cancer cluster, and to determine whether any environmental laws are implicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OC Health Care Agency had called for a review of cancer data with the California Cancer Registry, the UC Irvine cancer center and the Orange County Agricultural Commissioner\u2019s Office agreeing to conduct an analysis, the Orange County Register reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Residents<\/a>Residents in Ladera Ranch have raised concerns over the use of toxic pesticides as a possible link to a cluster of rare cancer diagnoses affecting children in the community. (KTLA)<\/p>\n

A statement from O.C. Supervisor Katrina Foley\u2019s office said,<\/a> \u201cWe do not yet know what caused these cancers, but many Ladera Ranch residents have raised concerns about herbicide use in their community. Vice Chair Foley has championed efforts to phase out harmful herbicides on County property and expand safer vegetation-management practices. OC Public Works now uses steam instead of herbicides to control weeds along residential streets in Ladera Ranch.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, officials said there is a temporary ban on toxic pesticides being used in the community.<\/p>\n

Some residents reported that their pets have also developed rare cancers after living in the community for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cLadera Ranch families deserve answers, transparency, and urgency from the state,\u201d said Supervisor Foley. \u201cWe do not yet know what caused these cancers, but that uncertainty demands a comprehensive review of every credible factor, including possible environmental exposures, along with direct communication and the public release of the findings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t stop until we understand why this is happening,\u201d Brian said. \u201cEvery child deserves a chance to grow up and every parent deserves a chance to watch them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, health officials said the investigation remains ongoing and no environmental cause linked to the reported cancer cases has been identified.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSuggest a Correction<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tSuggest a Correction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Orange County residents gathered at a community meeting demanding answers after several cases of children in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[13487,97,145306,6011],"class_list":["post-777789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-featured-on-instagram","tag-health","tag-ladera-ranch","tag-orange-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}