Anti-Doping Board Member Calls for Ban on Smoking at Sports Venues

Board member of the Medical Committee of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), Dr. Herbert Elliot, has reiterated his call for the banning of smoking in public places, especially sporting venues.
“Because the deleterious effect of both smoke from cigarette and marijuana can cause a problem and especially in doping where athletes who are subjected to it especially marijuana, can face a banned substance in their system, I’m in favour of banning all kinds of smoking in public sporting arenas,” he told JIS News, following his workshop on the final day of the Anti-Doping Symposium 2009 hosted by JADCO.
Continuing, he asserted, “now I see where Ireland and France have been able to ban smoking in restaurants and bars and I see no reason why we can’t do it”.
According to Dr. Elliott there have been cases where athletes have been negatively impacted by the presence of a banned substance in their system as a result of inhalation through second hand smoke.
“We have had a case already of an athlete who inhaled second hand smoke and he lost out because in testing him he had marijuana in his system,” he said.
The two day symposium, which took place at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston ended yesterday (January 15) and was hailed a huge success by a number of participants, who stated that it was very informative and broadened their understanding of the seriousness and different facets of doping.
General Secretary of the Boxing Board of Control, Leroy Brown, told JIS News that “it was very well structured. Even starting with the opening ceremony we had the representative (Director General) from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who gave a clear outline as to what the expectations of WADA are and the responsibilities that the Jamaican Government and JADCO are going to be.”
This Mr. Brown expects will put to rest some of the criticisms that Jamaica has faced in recent times. He further noted that he was pleased with the fact that JADCO had provided a lot of material as “this will be vital [as] we will have material which we can take back and utilise at the various gyms so people will have resource materials that they can utilise in dealing with the youngsters under their care”.
Sharing the General Secretary’s sentiments was Head of Physical Education at Calabar High School, Lewin Williams.
“They revealed a lot of information and the message ‘don’t need dope to cope’ has resonated with us. We even have some of the boys here with us and they have found it very informative,” he told JIS News.