Exclusive | Extremely rare cancer striking kids in rich SoCal city takes worrying turn as possible cause emerges

Families in a rich California enclave have claimed an extremely rare cancer has struck more people than first feared and that its root cause could be due to the rampant use of pesticides.Locals in Ladera Ranch, Orange County, have spent months raising concerns after at least six local children were diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a bone and soft tissue cancer that affects only about 200 to 240 children nationwide each year.Now, residents say their own investigation has uncovered what they believe is an unusually heavy use of pesticides and herbicides throughout the community and that more than 60 people could be impacted.Researchers have previously explored possible associations between pesticide exposure and certain childhood cancers, including Ewing sarcoma, but no direct causal relationship has been confirmed.Still, residents say the volume of chemicals being sprayed throughout the community has become impossible to ignore.“This issue has been looked into by several different groups of residents in Ladera Ranch going back to 2016,” attorney and resident Jackie French told The California Post.

“They have all been pretty much stonewalled … and many of them ended up moving away, so the movement kind of dies out each time.”French said she became involved after learning a neighbor’s 17-year-old son had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma.The child, Brody Matteson, died in March after battling the disease, after which his mother, Megan Matteson, posted in a community Facebook group asking residents to share whether anyone in their household had been diagnosed with cancer.“In this one Facebook group — and we only have about 25,000 people in our city and only a couple thousand in that group — she got 62 responses,” French said.

“Some people were saying there are three people with brain cancer just on their street.”Residents also reported an unusually high number of pets developing cancer, she said.While those reports have not been independently veri...