LOS ANGELES—A wealthy Southern California enclave on Friday said it would halt its routine use of landscape pesticides as residents push for an investigation into alleged links between the chemicals and an unusually high incidence of rare childhood cancers in the area.
Since 2013 at least six adolescents in Ladera Ranch, an unincorporated community in Orange County, have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, an exceedingly rare bone and soft-tissue cancer, according to reports made to the U.S. Attorney.
Ewing sarcoma typically impacts around 200 children in the United States annually, according to the American Cancer Society.
Just hours after the first assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli on Friday requested an Environmental Protection Agency investigation into the potential cluster, a representative for the Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation (LARMAC), the local homeowners association, told The Epoch Times it had implemented a 60-day temporary moratorium on pesticides it uses for routine landscape maintenance….