Fumigation & Heat Treatment

What is Fumigation?

Fumigation is a method of killing pests, termites or any other harmful living organisms to prevent transfer of exotic organisms. Fumigation is executed, by suffocating or poisoning pest, within an area of specified space by using fumigants. Normally, fumigation is done for wood material used for packing of goods to be exported to prevent transfer of exotic organisms.

Fumigation of Wooden Crates:

Fumigation of wooden crates should be carried out with methyl bromide at the dosage of 48 grams per meter cube. In this process the wooden packing crates are placed in the fumigation covers under a smooth floor and then it converted completely. The gas monitoring lines for measuring gas concentration during the exposure period is placed at different locations as per requirements. The fumigation covers are sealed with the help of sand snakes and an air tight enclosure is made. The total cubic area of the enclosure is measured and the required dosage of methyl bromide is administrated. Gas monitoring is carried out during the exposure period. After the exposure period of 24 hours the fumigation covers are removed and the empty wooden crates are aerated.

What is Heat Treatment?

Heat Treatment is method of wood sterilization, the wooden crates and wood shipping pallets are heated until they reach a minimum core temperature of 56 °C (132.8 °F) for at least 30 minutes. This can be achieved by using a dry kiln or any other approved heat treatment chamber/device.Heat treatment will likely become the most popular method due to environmental concerns caused by methyl bromide used to fumigate packaging.

Fumigation Or Heat Treatment Marking

Wood packaging material bearing the stamp or mark below is certified as being ISPM 15 compliant. It may be stamped or branded to the wood packaging material in any colour.

• IPPC certification symbol (this is a registered trade mark).
• XX: represents the two letter ISO country code where the wood was treated.SG for Singapore.
• 000: represents the unique certification number (which ensures that the wood packaging material can be traced back to the treatment provider and/or manufacturer).
• YY: is the treatment abbreviation where:
   * HT: is the code for heat treatment using conventional steam or dry kiln heat chamber to a minimum of 56º C for a minimum of 30 minutes
  * MB: is the code for methyl bromide fumigation
  * DH: is the code for heat treatment using dielectric heat

Sample Marking Heat Treatment in Singapore:

IPPC is short for International Plant Protection Convention. They developed a standard for wood packaging in international business, called ISPM-15.

International Standards For Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM 15) is anInternational Standards for Phytosanitary Measures Guidelines  developed by theInternational Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) that directly addresses the need to treat wood materials of a thickness greater than 6mm, used to ship products between countries. Its main purpose is to prevent the international transport and spread of disease and insects that could negatively affect plants or ecosystems.The IPPC standard(ISPM-15) allows for two treatment methods – heat treatment and fumigation with methyl bromide.