28 Apr 2017
iNADO Board of Directors Statement on Low-Level Clenbuterol Findings / Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations (iNADO). - Bonn : iNADO, 2017
Previously, the German broadcaster ARD reported about the presence of the prohibited steroid Clenbuterol in the urine samples of several unnamed athletes taken at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, and retested in 2016. WADA issued a Statement on the matter. A number of NADOs including those of iNADO Board Members contacted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for clarification and additional information.
Clenbuterol is a powerful performance enhancer with a long history of abuse in sport. Clenbuterol is used by cheating athletes to increase musculature, speed, strength and endurance without gaining weight and for its positive enhancement of breathing performance. But it is also used in meat production, especially in China, Mexico and Guatemala, and has led to inadvertent low-level adverse analytical findings in athletes who have eaten contaminated meat.
The iNADO Board of Directors thanks WADA for responding to NADO concerns and providing additional information both at the meeting of WADA’s NADO Working Group April 11 and 12, and last week during a teleconference with WADA Director General Olivier Niggli and Science Director Olivier Rabin.
It is clear that there are gaps in the World Anti-Doping Program for retesting of samples, for reporting the analytical results and for results management, including lack of detailed guidance to Anti-Doping Organisations (ADOs) on appropriate treatment of low-concentration Clenbuterol findings that may (with necessary preliminary review) be the result of contaminated meat. The NADO community is aware of the current inability of laboratories to distinguish between low-concentration Clenbuterol findings that may be the result of direct use and those that may be the result of meat contamination. (And of the ongoing work to remedy this problem.)
The current situation has resulted in inconsistent treatment of low-concentration Clenbuterol findings by ADOs. Many cases involving clenbuterol findings have gone to a hearing have led to results disqualifications and 1st ADRVs and even periods of ineligibility. For example, the case of Polish paddler Adam Seroczynski. But many other cases with similar findings have been closed without full results management and leading to no consequences at all. The current situation has also resulted in inconsistent oversight of ADOs as results management authorities (RMAs) with respect to comparable Clenbuterol findings. All NADOs would agree that low-level Clenbuterol findings should be managed according to the Code and in an open and transparent way.
Therefore, the iNADO Board urges WADA to take steps to ensure consistent treatment of low-concentration Clenbuterol findings that may indicate contamination from meat sources. These steps should include:
1.) WADA guidance to all ADOs, which should restate the problem of meat contamination in certain countries as a source of low-concentration Clenbuterol findings, and describe how such cases have been handled to date and the numbers of them.
2.) WADA updating ADOs on the ongoing research seeking to distinguish between direct use of Clenbuterol and clenbuterol sourced resulting from contaminated meat.
3.) WADA guidance to accredited laboratories on the consistent reporting of analytical results for Clenbuterol (including designating some analytical findings as “provisional analytical findings”), and about the communications they may have with RMAs in such cases.
4.) As was the case with respect to AAFs for Meldonium, WADA should give ADOs direction on a consistent approach for all ADOs to take for results management of such cases, including clearly stated circumstances in which such adverse analytical findings need not be pursued as possible ADRVs and need not go through the normal results management process, and the circumstances in which they must be pursued as possible anti-doping rule violations with full results management.
5.) That should include a definition and guidance to all ADOs on conducting “pattern analysis” to determine Clenbuterol cases to pursue or not.
6.) WADA should indicate the gaps in the current World Anti-Doping Program with respect to retesting of samples, including the results management of AAFs produced by retesting, and describe a process for filling those gaps. WADA’s stakeholders should be invited to make proposals to WADA. iNADO and its Members will be glad to participate in this effort. In the view of the iNADO Board, this should be done as a priority and cannot await the consultation and revision process leading to the 2021 Code.
7.) WADA should indicate how it intends to advise any ADO as RMA with secured stored samples on Clenbuterol retesting. This would include the IOC as the RMA in dealing with secured 2008 Beijing samples which might still be re-analysed for Clenbuterol with improved analytical techniques that in the future can distinguish between with a view direct use of Clenbuterol and Clenbuterol consumed in meat.
The iNADO Board notes that the documents prepared for the upcoming WADA Executive Committee and Foundation Board meetings refer to a forthcoming WADA paper on the subject. The iNADO Board looks forward to the paper being issued as quickly as possible for the benefit of the entire ADO community and of clean athletes.
