The phrase “Mens sana in corpore sano” (“a healthy mind in a healthy body”) has again taken the lead in the wing. Nicotine more precisely. “It is the second most consumed psychoactive substance in the world, after caffeine”specifies the Italian researcher Thomas Zandonai, from the Miguel-Hernandez University of Elche (Spain). With his colleague Ana Maria Peiro and Toby Mündel, professor at Brock University (Canada), this expert on substances not controlled by anti-doping organizations published, in February, the most exhaustive study to date on the consumption of nicotine in high level sport.
“We already knew that the environment for athletes was not healthy, but the results are very worrying, explains the researcher. We analyzed nearly 61,000 urine samples from doping controls carried out by Francesco Botre, the director of the anti-doping laboratory in Rome, on athletes of all nationalities during international competitions that took place between 2012 and 2020 in Italy. Ninety disciplines are concerned. However, over this nine-year period, one in five samples was positive for nicotine. The nicotine positivity rate was nearly 23%, when it is only 20% in the general population. »
On the podium of nicotine addicts, baseball comes first (63% of positive samples), ahead of weightlifting (43%), ice hockey (42.5%), American football and horseback riding. (42%), handball (40%), i.e. a nicotine level between two and three times higher than in the general population. No real surprise: most athletes in these disciplines, especially those playing in North America, No real surprise: most athletes in these disciplines, especially those from North America – Italy has a professional league baseball-, being already known for their high level of addiction to this substance. However, for researchers, “It is amazing to see such positivity in sports with high metabolic demands, such as handball, volleyball [36 %]rugby [32 %] or basketball [29 %] “.
Among the particularly alarming results and which represent a new fact in the eyes of the researchers: in more than 20,000 tests carried out on footballers, i.e. a third of the samples, the nicotine level reached 29%.
“It’s not about passive smoking”
How to interpret these numbers? “Our research is not able to determine the mode of administration of the nicotine found in the urine. But it is clearly established that it is not passive smoking and that, whatever the medium, it is the nicotine that is the problem”replies Thomas Zandonai.
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