Springer: Just breathe: Finding new ways to test for banned substances

From Stephanie Springer at The Hardball Times on October 16, 2018:

Earlier this month, the Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC), in conjunction with Major League Baseball, announced they had begun trials of “exhaled breath testing technology” to detect the use of prohibited substances by athletes. PCC touts breath testing as inexpensive, efficient, and less invasive than urine and blood testing, while acknowledging that breath testing is intended to complement, rather than supplant, current testing methods. PCC hopes to enroll 500 athletes in the trial, which will validate the use of breath testing by comparing the breath testing results to current testing methods.

Developing and testing a new method for testing for prohibited substances requires the same basic considerations, whether you’re testing urine, blood, or breath: collecting the sample, maintaining the sample integrity so it reflects the amount of substance present in the sample at the time sample was taken, and analyzing the sample to detect the presence of prohibited substances. You may be thinking that we’ve already tackled these problems when it comes to breath testing – what about the breathalyzer tests used for roadside sobriety checks?

Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/just-breathe-breath-testing-for-mlb-banned-substances/



Originally published: October 18, 2018. Last Updated: October 18, 2018.