October 2/02 1:56 am - Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport press releases

Posted by Editoress on 10/2/02
 

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport publishes daily press releases regarding new rulings, issues of importance to sport and articles published in various newspapers and websites. We thought our readers might be interested .

ANTI-DOPING CODE

WADA And IOC Publish New List of Banned Substances and Methods; New List will go into effect January 1, 2003
Canada News-Wire
Mon 30 Sep 2002

MONTREAL, Sept. 30 /CNW/ - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published today the new list of banned substances and methods, which will help guide doping control within the world of sports from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003. In releasing this list, WADA and the IOC have provided International Federations, National Olympic Committees and other Olympic partners the required three-month notice before this new list goes into effect. The current list, which was published in May 2001, will be applicable until December 31, 2002.

For the first time, the list of prohibited methods includes a reference to genetic doping.

"By introducing the notion of genetic doping into the list at this time, we at WADA and the IOC are taking into account the important changes occurring in doping techniques," said Richard W. Pound, WADA's president. "New medical technologies may pose new challenges in the fight against doping, but we, together with the scientific and medical communities, are ready to meet those challenges."

"This list takes into account the dangers of the future and follows one of the fundamental principles of the IOC: the protection of athletes' health," said Dr. Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC.

The new list can be found on both the WADA (www.wada-ama.org) and IOC (www.olympic.org) websites.

The next list, which is to be approved in 2003, will be part of the World Anti-Doping Code. The new list and Code will go into effect in 2004.


Dopage - Produits interdits: AMA et CIO incluent le dopage gènètique
Agence France Presse Francais
Mon 30 Sep 2002

MONTREAL, 30 sept (AFP) - L'Agence mondiale antidopage (AMA) et le Comité international olympique (CIO) ont publié lundi la liste pour 2003 des substances et méthodes considérées comme dopantes, qui inclut pour la première fois le "dopage génétique".

Cette liste, qui prendra effet le 1er janvier prochain, est publié trois mois à l'avance de manière à laisser aux fédérations et comités olympiques le temps de s'adapter.

"En introduisant maintenant la notion de dopage génétique dans la liste, nous prenons en compte à l'AMA et au CIO les changements importants existants dans les techniques de dopage", souligne dans un communiqué le président de l'AMA, Dick Pound, soulignant les "nouveaux défis" que risquent de poser les nouvelles technologies médicales.

De fait, a expliqué à l'AFP Frédéric Donze, porte-parole de l'AMA, il n'existe pas à l'heure actuelle de cas prouvé de dopage génétique, une technique qui consiste à travailler directement sur la cellule humaine pour qu'elle produise une substance dopante plutôt que de l'introduire dans le corps. "C'est un scénario catastrophe", a-t-il ajouté.

"Cette liste prend en compte les dangers de l'avenir et suit l'un des principes fondamentaux du CIO, la protection de la santé des athlètes", remarque dans le communiqué le président du CIO, Jacques Rogge.

La liste comprend notamment des stimulants, des anabolisants, des diurétiques, des hormones ou des bêta-bloquants. Elle est consultable sur les sites internet de l'AMA (www.wada-ama.org) et du CIO (www.olympic.org).

La prochaine liste annuelle, qui sera approuvée en 2003 et entrera en vigueur le 1er janvier 2004, sera inclue dans le Code mondial antidopage dont l'approbation est à l'ordre du jour de la conférence mondiale antidopage de Copenhague (03 au 05 mars).


Positive feedback helping formulate anti-doping code
The Sault Star
Tue 01 Oct 2002

MONTREAL (CP) -- Can slapping a multi-millionaire soccer player and an amateur Greco-Roman wrestler with the same two-year suspension for using steroids be considered equal punishment?

One loses millions, the other next to nothing.

There were questions like that among 122 responses received by the World Anti-Doping Agency to the first draft of its proposed international anti-doping code, agency president Richard Pound said Monday.

The agency's executive committee plans to meet Tuesday to discuss revisions to its World Anti-Doping Code based on comments it received from sports federations, governments, national Olympic committees and other bodies.

The comments will be used to write a second draft to be distributed in mid-October asking for further comments.

A finished code is to be submitted for approval at a world conference on doping March 3-5 in Copenhagen.

"The feedback has been very positive," Pound said on a conference call. "All show keen interest in there being a code that works for everybody.

"We will make changes, substantial changes in some areas, because we want to produce a code that is acceptable to everybody," he added.

Comments posted on the agency's internet site (www.wada-ama.org) suggest there is much work to be done, particularly in areas where a universal code may infringe on national laws or policy.

Pound, a lawyer from Montreal, said the agency hopes to have the code adopted by international sports federations and organizations such as the International Olympic Committee in time for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

He hopes countries will sign a memorandum accepting the code in principle, even though it could take up to 10 years for them to adjust their laws to conform.

The agency wants a world standard for dope testing procedures, banned substance lists, penalties for violations and other aspects of the war against drugs in sports.

A submission from the British government questioned whether "the approach of an all-embracing code may be too ambitious and a more workable approach might be to establish a narrower code which sets out the basic standards which sports governing bodies are expected to operate."

A Swedish brief asked that professional athletes be subject to the same rules as amateurs, a thorny question since the agency has no direct authority over pro organizations like the NHL, European soccer leagues or Major League Baseball, Pound said.

In hockey, for instance, NHL players are only tested when they are placed on a list of candidates to make their Olympic teams, while amateur athletes in other sports are subject to year-round, random and in-competition testing.

But while many amateurs consider that a double standard, some professional sports organizations fear that a proposed automatic two-year suspension for a serious doping infraction would leave them open to lawsuits from athletes who stand to lose millions.

There have been strong arguments raised on both sides of the question and sorting them out will require "an interesting exercise," said Pound.

"No one is going to be satisfied 100 per cent in this," he said, adding that the code could become universal if national federations and governments have the "intestinal fortitude" to apply it.


Le code antidopage de l'agence mondiale demande encore à être peaufiné
Presse Canadienne (Francais)
Tue 01 Oct 2002

MONTREAL (PC) - Une suspension identique de deux ans imposée à un joueur de soccer multi-millionnaire et à un lutteur amateur pour usage de stéroïdes peut-elle être considérée comme une sanction juste?

Le premier perd des millions de dollars, le second presque rien.

On retrouvait des questions semblables parmi les 122 commentaires reçus par l'Agence mondiale antidopage (AMA) dans le cadre de l'ébauche de son projet de code mondial antidopage, a précisé le président Richard Pound, lundi.

Le comité exécutif de l'agence se réunira mardi afin de discuter des changements à apporter à son code mondial antidopage selon les commentaires obtenus auprès des fédérations sportives, des gouvernements, des comités olympiques nationaux et autres intervenants.

Ces commentaires serviront à la rédaction de la deuxième version préliminaire du code, qui sera diffusée à la mi-octobre.

Un rapport final doit être soumis pour approbation lors de la conférence mondiale sur le dopage du 3 au 5 mars à Copenhague.

"Les réactions sont très positives, a révélé Pound lors d'une conférence téléphonique. L'intérêt est manifeste envers un code applicable à tous.

"Nous apporterons des changements, certains significatifs, car nous voulons en arriver à un code qui sera applicable partout", a-t-il ajouté.

Les commentaires affichés sur le site Internet de l'AMA (www.wada-ama.org) démontrent qu'il reste beaucoup de travail à faire, notamment dans les domaines où un code universel contrevient aux
lois ou aux politiques nationales.

Pound, un avocat de Montréal, a précisé que l'agence espère voir son code adopter par les fédérations sportives et des organismes comme le Comité international olympiques à temps pour les Jeux olympiques de 2004 à Athènes.

Il espère que les pays signeront un memorandum acceptant le code en principe, même s'il leur faudra plus de 10 ans pour harmoniser leurs lois en conséquence.

L'AMA souhaite des critères universels sur les procédures de prélèvement et d'analyse des échantillons, sur les sanctions en cas de violation des règles antidopage et tous les autres aspects visant à contrer l'usage des drogues dans le sport.

Un intervenant suédois a demandé que les athlètes professionnels soient soumis aux mêmes règles que les athlètes amateurs, un sujet épineux puisque l'agence n'a pas autorité sur les circuits professionnels comme la LNH, les ligues européennes de football et les ligues majeures de baseball, a noté Pound.

Au hockey, par exemple, les joueurs de la LNH sont testés uniquement quand ils sont retenus au sein de l'équipe olympique, tandis que les athlètes amateurs d'autres sports peuvent subir des tests inopinés.

Mais si plusieurs athlètes amateurs estiment qu'il y a deux poids deux mesures, les organisations professionnelles craignent qu'une suspension automatique de deux ans pour une infraction au code antidopage incite des athlètes, menacés de perdre des millions en salaire, à intenter des poursuites légales à leur club.


Football and cycling worried about world doping code: Pound

MONTREAL - Sports federations including football's powerful world governing body FIFA are concerned about the length of suspensions proposed in a new anti-doping code, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Dick Pound said on Monday.

The first draft of the World Anti-Doping Code, published in June, proposed a harmonisation across sports and countries for testing procedures and punishments for sportsmen and women caught using banned substances. The code is designed to come into operation in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

But Pound told journalists that federations of big-money sports such as football and world cycling body UCI, were worried about the suggested two-year minimum suspension for using banned substances.

Pound, a Canadian lawyer, said the federations of these sports feared the possibility that athletes would appeal against suspensions in their own national courts and then against the federations themselves.

The second draft of the code, which Pound hopes will be approved by WADA's Executive Committee on Tuesday, will give federations immunity from this sort of prosecution, he said.

However, Pound said that none of the objections raised by 120 governing bodies were "insurmountable".

WADA hopes to circulate the second draft of the code to federations, governments and athletes, by mid-October.

The code is due to undergo final approval at a world anti-doping conference next March.




Tennis, soccer not on board yet
AP
September 30, 2002

TORONTO -- Plans to implement a universal anti-doping code in time for the 2004 Olympics are being complicated by efforts to address the legal concerns of professional sports like tennis and soccer.

Richard Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said Monday that the organization has received 122 responses regarding the first draft of its anti-doping rules. WADA's executive committee meets Tuesday to discuss the recommendations.

If approved, the code would establish the first set of worldwide doping rules for international sports. Among other things, it would set a single list of banned substances, mandate rigorous out-of-competition testing and set standard penalties and suspensions for drug cheats, including two-year bans for serious offenses.

Pound hopes to have a second draft ready in the next few months, with final approval coming at a global conference in March. Governments and the various sports ruling bodies would then be asked to sign a memorandum of understanding adopting the guidelines before the Athens Olympics.

IOC president Jacques Rogge recently said he would not hesitate to act against sports or national Olympic committees if, after having their views incorporated in the code, they fail to go along.

Pound said the code could become universal if governments and sports federations have the "intestinal fortitude'' to apply it. Pound said that countries that refuse to adopt the code would be unable to host the Olympics.

"A couple of sports may say 'We don't care what the consequences are, we're not going to adopt this code,' '' Pound said. He added that the consequences would be so serious for those sports, they would have no reason to reject the code.

WADA was set up by the IOC following the doping scandals that marred the 1998 Tour de France cycling race. Most federations have signed testing agreements with WADA, but FIFA -- soccer's governing body -- and tennis are among those yet to do so.

Pound said WADA is talking to FIFA and the international tennis and cycling bodies about adopting the code. He said insulating those organizations from legal liability over a suspension was a major concern.

For example, if a court ruled that a two-year ban FIFA imposed on a professional soccer player was invalid, the player could then sue FIFA for lost earnings.

"I think if we can solve that in some way, (FIFA) wouldn't have any problem,'' Pound said.

Pound said all the responses to the first draft were positive, but he expected the final document to be a compromise.

"Not everyone is going to be satisfied 100 percent with this,'' he said. "Not everybody is going to get everything they think should be in an international code.''

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DRUGS AND SPORT

Reuters
October 1, 2002
IOC Bans Genetically-Engineered Sportsmen
BY ADRIAN WARNER

LONDON - Designer arms, legs and muscles, genetically engineered to produce gold medallists, have been banned in a pre-emptive strike against gene manipulation in sport.

Gene doping or engineering is regarded as the next major battleground against ruthless competitors who want to cheat their way to glory.

From the start of next year "cell doping" will be added to the prohibited list of substances and methods alongside steroids, stimulants and growth hormones which are already banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which organizes drug-testing worldwide, have written just one sentence into their new list of banned substances and methods for which competitors can be banned.

But the 25 words prove that the sport's world no longer considers the idea of manufacturing a "designer arm" to win Wimbledon or "super-knees" for Olympic downhill glory as the subjects of science fiction. They threaten to become reality.

"Gene or cell doping is defined as the non-therapeutic use of genes, genetic elements and/or cells that have the capacity to enhance athletic performance, " the Olympic movement's Anti-Doping Code said.

WADA chief Dick Pound said: "By introducing the notion of genetic doping into the list at this time, we at WADA and the IOC are taking into account the important changes occurring in doping techniques."

"DESIGNER BABIES"

IOC president Jacques Rogge, a former orthopedic surgeon, has said many times since he took over the head of the organization last year that he regards the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs as the biggest threat to sport.

The former Olympic yachtsman said last year that research into genetic engineering was an important part of his campaign.

The prospect of people building "designer babies" to become the sporting millionaires of the future is still considered a distant threat. But Pound said earlier this year that around 500 studies were being carried out involving human subjects.

"Most of this is in the experimental stage or research stage," he said. "This won't be widespread for a minimum of five years but that's tomorrow at the pace of life we live these days."

Systematic cheating has been a part of top-class sport for decades. The temptation to use artificial means to boost performance has increased as the commercial rewards of winning an Olympic gold medal have mushroomed over the years.

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the former East Germany ran a steroid-taking program which helped produce gold medal winners on a conveyor belt in the 1970s and 1980s.

Earlier this month the German government announced it was paying out millions of euros in compensation to thousands of athletes whose health suffered because of the program.

Genetic engineering has the potential to be used in the same way. The IOC has been playing catch-up with the cheats for years and putting gene doping on the list does not necessarily mean the IOC will be in a position to nail competitors who use it.

The IOC has yet to introduce a legally-watertight test for human grown hormone although the substance is widely believed to be used by some athletes to get stronger and faster.

Pound said: "New medical technologies may pose new challenges in the fight against doping but we, together with the scientific and medical communities, are ready to meet those challenges."

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World sport clamps down quickly on latest doping threat

By John Goodbody

GENETIC doping, the revolutionary method that, it is feared, is already being used by elite competitors in several sports to help their strength, stamina and speed, was banned yesterday.

Although there is no method of detecting sportsmen and women who have undergone genetic manipulation, world sport has acted to prohibit the method from January 1, 2003. Its use is regarded as perhaps the biggest threat to the future of sport.

In a joint statement, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), issued an updated list of proscribed substances and methods, giving the statutory three-month notice period.

Dick Pound, the Canadian president of WADA, said: "By introducing the notion of genetic doping into the list at this time, WADA and the IOC are taking into account the important changes occurring in doping techniques.

"Medical technologies may pose new challenges in the fight against doping, but we, and the scientific and medical communities, are ready to meet those challenges."

Dr Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, said: "This list takes into account the dangers of the future and follows one of the fundamental principles of the IOC: the protection of athletes' health."

It is rare but not unknown for the IOC to ban a substance for which there is no foolproof detection method. Human Growth Hormone (HGH) has been banned for more than ten years, although there is still no reliable test for its illicit use. Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his 100 metres gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, admitted under testimony a year later that he had used HGH in training.

The struggle to combat genetic doping is even more far-reaching, since genetically nourished muscles cannot be detected, except by biopsy. This would be an invasive technique and it would be morally difficult to impose.

At a conference in London last year, Dr Peter Schjerling, a research geneticist, warned of the potential for "gene cheats". He said that there were two ways of assisting a competitor. First, an advantageous gene could be injected into a particular muscle or carried to all muscles by a tame virus - nature's gene therapist.

"If direct injection is used the DNA will only be present in that specific muscle. Therefore, a positive test would require a slice of actual muscle tissue. It would have to be at the exact spot of the injection," Dr Schjerling said.

Researchers in the United States and London have tested muscle-building vaccines on mice with astonishing effects. "Genetic manipulation is there to treat people who have ailments, not to treat a healthy person," Dr. Rogge said.


ETHICS

Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week

October 5, 2002

NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS: VitaCube now requires resellers to follow ethical conduct guidelines

With increasing numbers of trainers and personal care providers hoping to sell high-end nutritional products from VitaCube Systems, Inc., the company announced that it will require all resellers to follow ethical guidelines for marketing and communicating accurate information to consumers.

VitaCube manufactures its products to meet strict pharmaceutical standards and refuses to market or incorporate potentially harmful substances such as creatine, ephedra, ma huang, or any other stimulants into its formulations.

VitaCube's Code of Conduct and Product Integrity follows many of the position statements and guidelines outlined by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and other industry groups. The code requires VitaCube resellers to:

1. Agree to not market, sell, or make referrals promoting illegal substances or the illegitimate use of controlled substances including anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS).

2. Disclose that VitaCube products do not contain stimulants or other potentially harmful ingredients including creatine, ephedra, ma haung, and other substances, even though those substances are provided and termed "safe" by other companies and manufacturers.

3. Agree to be truthful when stating their own education, training, and experience in addition to the qualities, benefits, and positive attributes of VitaCube products.

4. Be appropriately trained on nutritional products, the VitaCube system and be committed to staying current on new information and developments.

5. Agree to strongly encourage customers to use nutritional supplements in conjunction with regular health checks, appropriate exercise, and medical supervision.

6. Agree to communicate all quality, information, and customer issues to VitaCube so they may be responded to immediately.

7. Agree to not discriminate in any way against any gender, race, religion, or lifestyle in providing information and support on behalf of VitaCube.