Ladera Ranch Pauses Use of Certain Landscape Chemicals Amid Pediatric Cancer Concerns
The homeowners' association in Ladera Ranch, California, has suspended routine applications of specific weed-control and growth-regulation products while a review is conducted, following a request for a federal environmental investigation into a cluster of rare childhood cancers.
Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation (LARMAC) announced a 60-day suspension of routine landscape chemicals used for weed management and plant growth regulation in the community’s common areas. The pause does not affect applications required for public health and safety, such as rodent control or invasive-pest responses. LARMAC said an Ad Hoc Landscape Pest Management Advisory Committee, made up of homeowners and board members, will review the current program and consider how residents are notified of work in the area.
The decision follows a request by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate possible environmental contributors to a series of pediatric Ewing sarcoma diagnoses in Ladera Ranch dating back to 2013. In a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Essayli wrote, "My office has been made aware of recent reports of multiple pediatric Ewing sarcoma cases within the Ladera Ranch community. Residents are raising concerns about a potential cancer cluster and whether environmental factors may warrant further evaluation."
Parents in the master-planned community have long questioned the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides across its roughly 4,000 acres, though no direct link between the chemicals and the cancers has been established.