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Doping a public health matter
Source: Agencies |
September 23, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE use of performance-enhancing drugs is now a public health matter rather than simply a sporting problem, delegates said at a top anti-doping conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
"If we believe that around three percent of high school boys in the US are taking a steroid or growth hormone, then that's a public health issue," said Dr Timothy Armstrong of the World Health Organization.
"Substance abuse in any shape or form has a physical and mental health aspect to it. The WHO, being the lead UN agency on health matters, takes this issue quite seriously."
Armstrong was speaking at the conference organized by the Arne Ljungqvist Foundation, named after the Swedish anti-doping official who is also chairman of the International Olympic Committee medical commission.
Ljungqvist, who invited the likes of the WHO and World Anti-Doping Agency to the meeting, shared Armstrong's opinion.
"This is a first attempt to highlight this matter as a public health issue, which in my view it is," he said.
"Elite sport plays an obvious role. They are the role models of youngsters and if they are drug takers, that is not the right role model for the coming society.
"I am so happy today to see these international authorities coming together and sharing these concerns that are being expressed and I hope that we can find common ways to deal with them," he added.
WADA Director General David Howman told the briefing that what happens in elite sport has an effect on wider society and that the sharing of information was crucial to tackling the problem of doping.
"What we have learned in the last 10 years is that there is a trickle-down effect into recreational sports and into the high schools," said Howman.
"If we believe that around three percent of high school boys in the US are taking a steroid or growth hormone, then that's a public health issue," said Dr Timothy Armstrong of the World Health Organization.
"Substance abuse in any shape or form has a physical and mental health aspect to it. The WHO, being the lead UN agency on health matters, takes this issue quite seriously."
Armstrong was speaking at the conference organized by the Arne Ljungqvist Foundation, named after the Swedish anti-doping official who is also chairman of the International Olympic Committee medical commission.
Ljungqvist, who invited the likes of the WHO and World Anti-Doping Agency to the meeting, shared Armstrong's opinion.
"This is a first attempt to highlight this matter as a public health issue, which in my view it is," he said.
"Elite sport plays an obvious role. They are the role models of youngsters and if they are drug takers, that is not the right role model for the coming society.
"I am so happy today to see these international authorities coming together and sharing these concerns that are being expressed and I hope that we can find common ways to deal with them," he added.
WADA Director General David Howman told the briefing that what happens in elite sport has an effect on wider society and that the sharing of information was crucial to tackling the problem of doping.
"What we have learned in the last 10 years is that there is a trickle-down effect into recreational sports and into the high schools," said Howman.
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