News Release - July 31, 2006

WADA Proposes a Ban on Supplement Analyses in Accredited Facilities

The World Anti-Doping Agency has recently proposed the addition of Section 3.4 to the Code of Ethics in WADA's International Standard for Laboratories (ISL), stating that accredited laboratories shall not engage in testing of dietary supplements. WADA has in the past taken the position that athletes should not use dietary supplements, and apparently feels that supplement testing in WADA accredited laboratories may encourage supplement use among athletes.

WADA's proposed testing ban would take effect in early 2007. Analytical services offered as a part of the BSCG program will be uninterrupted if WADA implements this proposed ban. Although the testing may no longer be permitted in a "WADA" lab, the same expert chemists, instrumentation, and techniques that are a defining characteristic of the world's most advanced doping laboratories will continue to be used.

Along with many of the world's most prominent anti-doping scientists, we continue to urge WADA that banning supplement testing in its accredited laboratories runs counter to its goals of ridding sport from the scourge of doping. Among the reasons why the proposed ban is hostile to the long-term viability of worldwide anti-doping efforts:

• Athletes would be left to trust laboratories with little to no experience in the anti-doping sciences when making decisions about nutritional supplements

• The view that athletes should not take supplements, and therefore supplement testing should be banned, is naïve and is likely have deleterious effects on anti-doping efforts

• A prohibition on supplement testing would result in a loss of a source of information about designer steroids because closer ties with the supplement industry have promoted information sharing

• The proposed provision is overbroad: WADA could simply state that no laboratory shall endorse any commercial supplier, or make any such claims as "WADA approved"

• The proposed provision would result in a loss of a source of revenue for the accredited laboratories

« News Releases
« Home