{"id":307569,"date":"2026-05-09T10:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T10:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307569\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T10:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T10:58:19","slug":"hahn-pushes-stronger-air-quality-enforcement-for-pesticides-near-la-long-beach-ports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307569\/","title":{"rendered":"Hahn Pushes Stronger Air Quality Enforcement for Pesticides Near LA\u2013Long Beach Ports –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo credit: Gratis Graphics. Creative Commons <\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors greenlit closer coordination between the county\u2019s agricultural commissioner and the South Coast Air Quality Management District or AQMD on the issue of oversight of facilities that use the chemical methyl bromide to fumigate fruits and vegetables entering the county through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The effort was led by Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes the ports as well as the surrounding Harbor Area and Long Beach communities. Hahn\u2019s motion was coauthored by Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell.<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of thousands of metric tons of fruits and vegetables are processed at our ports every year and feed American families across the nation. We have to keep those safe from pests\u2014but we also can\u2019t allow these pesticides to jeopardize the health of our portside communities,\u201d said Supervisor Hahn. \u201cThese two agencies need to work together to deliver the safe, clean air that these communities deserve. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Methyl bromide is a pesticide used to fumigate commodity agricultural products, controlling pests like insects, mites, fungi, weeds, and rodents. It is an odorless gas that penetrates deeply into commodities and packaging in a way that sprays or surface treatments cannot. It is also a hazardous air pollutant and toxic air contaminant. Studies have shown that exposure to methyl bromide may cause damage to the brain and nervous system. Currently, 13 facilities located around the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach actively fumigate these products using methyl bromide.<\/p>\n

In 2023 and 2024, the California Air Resources Board began air monitoring in a West Long Beach community near two fumigation facilities. The monitoring found an average of ~2.1 parts per billion (ppb) methyl bromide, which is about double the state\u2019s long-term health exposure threshold. That incident led to Hahn and Michell\u2019s effort to strengthen the Memorandum of Understanding with AQMD.<\/p>\n

Hahn and Mitchell\u2019s motion authorizes the agricultural commissioner to establish a new Memorandum of Understanding with AQMD that:<\/p>\n

Requires that businesses obtain two permits, one from the county agricultural commissioner and separate one from the South Coast Air Quality Management DistrictClarifies roles and authority, with the agricultural commissioner responsible for enforcement of the use of the pesticide and AQMD charged with air quality enforcementEstablishes a transition process for bringing facilities into AQMD permittingDefines how existing facility conditions will be handledEnsures ongoing cooperation between the two agencies<\/p>\n

Details: Read Hahn and Mitchell\u2019s full motion here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: Gratis Graphics. Creative Commons LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors greenlit closer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[129305,129306,131,133,132,129307],"class_list":["post-307569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-airquality","tag-portpollution","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-publichealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307569","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=307569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}