The data from the US EPA containing analytical monitoring of fumigation trials (US EPA, 1988), and similar data collected by the United States Spice Trade Association, supplied to the US EPA, give an indication of the decay rate of ETO residues following fumigation (US EPA, 1996). Significant levels of ETO forming a large range (0.1 to 354 ppm) were reported in the five spices 30 days after fumigation. By contrast, our fumigation trials showed a much more rapid decay of ETO
residues in pepper, decreasing to below 5 ppm at 14 days. The US EPA data had a mean value of about 50 ppm in pepper at 14 days. The reason for the discrepancy
in decay rate results between US EPA data and those from our study is unknown but may be due to differences in sampling or ETO fumigation methods.