Sportspersons who are coffee connoisseurs beware! Caffeine and nicotine are on the list of substances to be monitored by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Beyond a permissible limit, they will not be allowed. This has been recently disclosed by the WADA in Buenos Aires.
Caffeine has got into the new list of substances that would be monitored and would not be allowed beyond a limit. This will come into effect from January 1, 2014.
Also on the list of substances, which are not on the WADA’s Prohibited List but which it wishes to monitor in future, are nicotine – inhaled by smokers. Both are used as stimulants by sprinters, weightlifters and swimmers. According to experts, anything between 10 and 12 cups of coffee will be good enough to return a negative test. “Bupropion, caffeine, nicotine, phenylephrine, phenylpropanolamine, pipradrol, pseudoephedrine (150 mg per ml), synephrine and narcotics have all been added to the 2014 Monitoring Programme,” WADA said. Ashok Ahuja, former Head of Department, Sports Medicine & Sciences, National Institute of Sports, said athletes have to be more careful now.