Heat treated pallets: the proper way to sterilize wood pallets
“ISPM 15 is an International Phytosanitary Measure developed by the International 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.[…] ISPM 15
affects all wood packaging material (wood pallets, wood crates, etc.)
requiring that they be debarked and then heat treated or fumigated […]
and stamped or branded, with a mark of compliance.” [1]
Until
March of 2010, there were two forms of sterilization used in order to
make wood pallets comply with the ISPM 15 exportation norms: chemical
fumigation and heat treatment [2].
Recall of pharmaceutical products
On
July 12, 2010, it was reported that the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) was recalling the following over-the-counter medicines: Tylenol,
Motrin and Benadryl [3]; these medications were being
recalled as a safety measure as it was discovered that the products had
been shipped by the manufacturer, McNeil, on wooden pallets, or stored
in wooden crates, which had been treated with a fungicide.
This
same fungicide had led to a vast recall earlier this year following
complaints from consumers stating that certain medication packages had a
musty odour to them. This
odour was later associated to minute amounts of tribromoanisole (TBA), a
fungicide that is used to clean and sterilize the wooden pallets on
which these over-the-counter products were shipped. It is mentioned in the news report that the medications in question had been manufactured prior to the initial recall in January of this year.
According to the FDA, the medications that are implicated in the current recall had been sent to the United States, Fiji, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
Chemical fumigation
In
order to comply with exportation standardizations, wood pallets must be
fumigated, often using methyl bromide; this method was used up until
recently, it was banned in March 2010.
Heat treatment and heat treated pallets
In
this method of sterilization treatment, the wood pallets or wood crates
are heated in order to reach a core temperature of at least 56 °C (132.8 °F) for a minimum of 30 minutes.
L.C.N. inc. was the first North American wood pallets manufacturer to offer heat treated pallets. We guarantee that our products meet the strictest cleanliness and sterilization standards as required in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
For more information visit LCN-PAL, custom wood crates and wood pallet manufacturers and heat treated pallets.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPM_15
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallet
3. http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/13303