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N°39 - November 2003 |
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FORENSIC SCIENCE
 Sports doping: chasing the cheats
 The information weapon
In co-operation with the International Olympic Committee, the Union is fighting against the use of illegal drugs in sport. To combat this scourge with criminal ramifications – and one that poses a particular threat to young people attracted to sport – the Cafdis research network sought to strengthen the information weapon. The result is an Internet site able to answer a wide range of questions on this problem of serious concern to society. Researchers can find scientific articles, lawyers, pertinent legal texts, doctors and pharmaceutical industries, details of the latest developments in substances and detection methods, and teachers handy tips on how to approach the subject in the classroom. There are also many links to other resources.
To keep pace in a field where new illegal practices are developing all the time, the Cafdis site is updated continuously with the latest info on doping and on science's response to doping.
Advances in detection
Another weapon in the fight against doping is testing. The nine teams from six countries participating in the EU-backed Isotrace project are developing a particularly sensitive IRMS (Isotope Ratio Mass Spectroscopy) detection method. This test should make it possible to detect the ratio of carbon isotopes present in a urine sample at concentrations which are much lower than is at present the case. This would make it possible to distinguish between natural hormones (produced by the body after consuming a given food) and synthetic hormones resulting from the ingestion of a banned substance. 'Such a technique could later be extended to isotopes other than carbon, especially hydrogen, which could be very useful detectors in the field of doping substances,' stresses Rainer Stephany of the Laboratory for Residue Analysis (NL).
The Isotrace partners would like their process to be used at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
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