Prohibition of artificial hypoxic environments in sports: health risks rather than ethics.
There is actual debate on a recent position of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which has cautiously refrained from banning hypoxic tents and intends to monitor their health risk. Regardless of teleological and deontological concepts, we highlight that the health risks inherent to the widespread use of these artificial performance-enhancing devices would make them as unsafe as other forms of blood doping.
Lippi
Giuseppe
G
Sezione di Chimica Clinica, Dipartimento di Scienze Morfologico-Biomediche, Università degli Studi di Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy. ulippi@tin.it
Franchini
Massimo
M
Guidi
Gian Cesare
GC
D000531:Altitude; D001273:Atmosphere Exposure Chambers / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000941:ethics*; D004300:Doping in Sports / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D012306:Risk; D013177:Sports / Q000941:ethics*; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology