Smoking habits of italian athletes undergoing anti-doping control

The Italian Anti-Doping Act 376 of 2000 entitled the ‘Anti-dopingCommission’ was established within the Ministry of Health tomanage doping control activities in adult non-professional andyoung professional and non-professional sports.[1]The Commission identifies both the sport events at whichanti-doping controls are carried out and the subjects to becontrolled.[1]The aim of the Commission’s activity, reportedannually to the Parliament, is to promote and protect the healthof recreational adult athletes and young professional athletes, witha possible benefit for all the population.The investigation on the prevalence of tobacco smoking incontrolled athletes is of interest since it is the first preventable toxichabit; an association between cigarette smoking and long-termdecline in physical performance has been demonstrated.[2,3]Indeed, during the timeframe of the study, nicotine was amongthe substances placed in the Monitoring Program of the WorldAnti-doping Agency (WADA).[4]WADA-selected laboratories,among them the Italian WADA-accredited lab, participating in themonitoring programme for nicotine were given specificrequirements, for example to measure nicotine and its two majormetabolites, cotinine and trans-3’-hydroxycotinine, with establishedthresholds.On the basis of urinary concentrations of nicotine, and its princi-pal metabolites, found in Italian athletes undergoing an anti-doping control by the Anti-Doping Act 376 in 2014, the presentstudy comments on the resulting smoking habits of tested athletesfrom different sport disciplines.