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In the context of the cases of Sinner and then Swiatek, some members and I, tried to explain here a very simple logic; performing more of much more sensitive tests will result in a much larger amount of ‘false positives’, in the form on insignificant contaminations. Nice to see the boss of WADA in person also following our concern:
More detail from this Polish article:
The issue of microdosing is interesting, with no confirmed efficacy for certain substances* but some effect in blood doping. Both are of no concern in the two big cases.
After a slow start WADA seems to accelerate on the issue of unintentional ‘doping’ due to contamination with the tiniest of traces.
*Needs certainly more study
"Today there is a contamination problem,” he said. “This does not mean that there are more cases of this kind than in the past, the fact is that laboratories are more efficient in detecting even infinitesimal quantities of substances. The quantities are so small that you can get contaminated by doing harmless things. The truth is that we hear a lot of stories and I understand the public opinion that can end up thinking that we take everything.
More detail from this Polish article:
WADA President Witold Bańka and the head of the Polish Anti-Doping Agency (POLADA) Michał Rynkowski also drew attention to this problem during a recent meeting with journalists.
- To imagine the scale of sensitivity of today's devices, it can be said that they are able to detect a drop of a prohibited substance released into a water-filled Olympic pool - explained Bańka.
The head of POLADA, on the other hand, cited an example of an experiment in which traces of an illegal substance were detected in samples taken from people who previously handed a person using an ointment with a prohibited agent.
"If there were minimum thresholds for these substances, we probably wouldn't have heard about all these cases at all," Niggli said. "However, we need to understand whether we are ready to accept the risk of microdosing and where these limits should be put," he said.
The issue of microdosing is interesting, with no confirmed efficacy for certain substances* but some effect in blood doping. Both are of no concern in the two big cases.
Results: Our review concludes that it is premature to draw any conclusions about the efficacy or safety of microdosing since the research quality cannot be considered confirmatory.
Discussion: We propose some potential causes for the current state of the literature and some suggestions for how these causes may be ameliorated.
After a slow start WADA seems to accelerate on the issue of unintentional ‘doping’ due to contamination with the tiniest of traces.
*Needs certainly more study
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