GAELIC GAMES NEWS:KERRY FOOTBALLER Aidan O'Mahony will be the first player to face the GAA's anti-doping tribunal after being suspended pending a hearing for testing adversely for the presence of salbutamol in a sample. Although the Rathmore man has not been officially named by the relevant authorities, The Irish Timeshave established that he is the player involved.

It will be up to the three-time All-Ireland medallist to demonstrate the presence of the drug was for medicinal or therapeutic reasons. O'Mahony is an asthmatic and has registered his condition, which is commonly treatable with inhalers containing the substance.

There was optimism yesterday that no serious suspension will ensue as long as, first, the authorities had been informed of his condition and, second, the levels found in the sample prove consistent with therapeutic use.

Last night the Kerry County Board issued a statement confirming that "a member of the Kerry Senior Football panel is granted a hearing in relation to medication he used for asthma following a test after the All-Ireland Final.

"The player's asthma has been pre-notified to the Sports Council since the GAA's anti-doping policy came in a few years ago. Coiste Chontae Chiarrai and the player are happy to co-operate with the hearing and are confident the player will be exonerated."

No details of the case had been released by either Croke Park or the Irish Sports Council (ISC).

This issue was at the heart of a controversy involving Ireland rugby player Frankie Sheahan, who tested positive for the same substance after Munster's 2003 European Cup semi-final against Toulouse.

Although suspended by an independent tribunal for two years - due to an abnormally high level of salbutamol - Sheahan was cleared on appeal, as it was accepted that severe dehydration during the fixture, which was played in France, had distorted the sample and that the level detected was consistent with the player's usual dose of eight puffs.

Ultimately Sheahan was suspended for three months for failure to comply with the notification requirements for his medication, but cleared on the core issue of his positive test.

This is a significant issue for Croke Park, as it is the first time the GAA's anti-doping apparatus has been brought into operation. Compliance with an anti-doping code has been one of the requirements on which depends a number of funding issues, such as ISC grants, including those to intercounty players.

Even the famous €75 million subvention for the redevelopment of Croke Park, revealed at the 2001 annual congress, was made subject to the association subscribing to the ISC's requirement for an anti-doping code.

If all parties agree to move the process along as quickly as possible, the matter may be disposed of before Christmas. There is a mechanism by which a player can appeal the imposition of an immediate suspension pending the hearing and O'Mahony may avail of this.

The GAA's procedures in these matters were finalised earlier this year after approval by Central Council and agreement with the ISC. An Anti-Doping Hearings Committee of three will be empanelled to hear the case. It will consist of one member from each of three panels nominated by the association to hear these cases: one legal panellist, who will chair the hearing; one medical panellist and one sports administrator.

It will be up to the GAA's Doping Control Committee (DCC) to prosecute the case. That team will be appointed by the committee and will consist of a solicitor, a barrister and a member of the DCC.

The player before the panel is also expected to have legal representation.

Appeals, by either the player or the ISC, would be heard by the Irish Sports Anti-Doping Appeal Panel, an independent body.

The test in question was conducted after the All-Ireland football final between Kerry and Tyrone, but the result was not brought to the attention of Croke Park and the player until last week.

According to Dr Joe Cumiskey, formerly medical officer to the Olympic Council of Ireland and an international authority on doping in sport, the use of salbutamol is a continuing concern for the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Although there are genuine cases of asthma among elite athletes - O'Mahony is said by team-mates to have been taking medication for asthma since long before his senior career - the incidence of the condition is disproportionately widespread in the international sports community.

"The figures show that 1.7 per cent of athletes declared with asthma at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984," said Cumiskey. "That had risen to 3.6 by Atlanta in 1996 and 5.5 in Sydney in 2000. By this year in Beijing that was up to 8.5 per cent; yet 17 per cent of medallists were declared asthmatics.

"Salbutamol is a stimulant and used to dilate the bronchi in the airwaves. That's its main use. If used in high doses it does have an anabolic effect. If there's a presence over a certain level in the urine then it's considered that it's being used for anabolic effect and not for broncho-dilatory effects. There is a cut-off point.

"You can get a therapeutic use exemption for using the drug if you have established asthma and provided you register before you take the drug and not afterwards."

Cumiskey says that at Olympic level there are two criteria for justifying the presence of the substance in a sample.

"Number one is how was the diagnosis of asthma made and where was it made. It should have been made in the last four years and it should have been done with pulmonary function tests, as outlined on the IOC medical commission website, which are the criteria for diagnosing asthma at the Olympic Games.

"Number two is that if the amount found is excessive it can be established whether it was taken orally or by inhalation. It is never allowed orally."

Croke Park sources said yesterday the GAA's regulations are not as rigorous in relation to the verification of asthma, and that it was one of the areas in which the association had secured a derogation, similar to that on out-of-competition testing, which does not take place in the home or workplace of intercounty players but does at training sessions.

• In a case of unfortunate timing, the Kerry County Board had to call off last night's scheduled launch of the county's Alcohol and Substance Abuse Programme.

Salbutamol Why it's banned in sport . . .

SALBUTAMOL is used in the prevention and treatment of asthma, exercise-induced asthma, bronchitis and emphysema. It is commonly prescribed, and many will be familiar with the blue reliever inhalers, such as Ventolin Inhaler or Salamol Inhaler.

Salbutamol is from the beta-2 agonist class of drug and is prohibited in sport because of its potential use as a stimulant and as an anabolic agent at very high doses, which could enhance performance but also endanger the health of the athlete.

To enable those who have asthma participate, and to allow those who need salbutamol compete, salbutamol is allowed under strict conditions. The rules on the use of salbutamol are very clear: it is permitted by inhaler only to prevent and/or treat asthma and exercise-induced asthma.

To obtain permission to use salbutamol by this route, written notification by a respiratory or team physician that the athlete has asthma and/or exercise-induced asthma must be forwarded to the relevant medical authority prior to competition.

While not as potent an anabolic agent as other beta-2 agonists such as clenbuterol (angel dust), salbutamol, when taken at very high doses, has anabolic properties.

The definition of a positive result under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) anabolic agent category is determined by a concentration in urine of over 1,000 nanograms per millilitre.

There has been growing concern over the past decade among medical professionals over the use and potential misuse of salbutamol and other beta-2 agonists in sport.

The rise in the number of Olympic competitors diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma through the 1980s and 1990s has fuelled some suspicions. For the Sydney Olympic Games, 607 (about six per cent) out of 10,300 competitors gave notification they needed to take beta-2 agonist medications for exercise-induced asthma.

Following the Sydney Olympic Games, the IOC medical commission set up a specialist group to investigate the overuse of inhaled beta-2 agonists.

Their recommendations were that, for future Olympic Games, athletes be required to submit to the IOC medical commission clinical and laboratory evidence, including respiratory function tests, to justify treatment.

Salbutamol is found in many prescription medicines available in Ireland and is marketed as inhaled preparations, tablets, syrups and injections under the following brand names: Salamol, Ventolin, Gerivent, Ventamol, Airomir.

A number of delegates at World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) meetings have raised concerns over the misuse of salbutamol, and Wada are continuously monitoring the use of salbutamol by athletes.

According to the Wada Prohibited List, all beta-2 agonists, including their D- and L-isomers are prohibited. However, salbutamol and also formoterol, salmeterol and terbutaline, when administered by inhalation, require an abbreviated Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE).

Despite the granting of any form of TUE, a concentration of salbutamol (free plus glucuronide) greater than 1,000 ng/mL will be considered an Adverse Analytical Finding, unless the athlete proves that the abnormal result was the consequence of the therapeutic use of inhaled salbutamol. - Ian O'Riordan

Salbutamol Other cases in sport . . .

WHILE THE Frankie Sheahan case provided Irish sport with its first and, until yesterday, only high-profile case of an adverse doping finding related to salbutamol use, it is something the wider sporting world is well familiar with.

Sheahan's case illustrated one of the main problems of salbutamol use in sport, in that while it is allowed in certain doses, once that dose is approved under the therapeutic use exemption, there is still a level above which a positive sample will still be returned.

There are several other examples of this in other sports, with some contrasting outcomes. Not surprisingly, cycling has had plenty of cases involving salbutamol abuse, the 2006 Tour de France being the most controversial. The original race winner, Floyd Landis, was stripped of his title when just a week later a doping test showed the American had elevated ratios of testosterone to epitestosterone, which eventually resulted in a two-year ban.

At the same time the runner-up that year, Spain's Oscar Pereiro, was also being investigated for twice testing positive for the asthma drug during the race. The International Cycling Union had granted the Spanish rider a certificate to use salbutamol for medical reasons, and decided not to pursue disciplinary action against him, but France's anti-doping agency did not believe the waiver was medically justified.

In the end Pereiro was cleared and awarded the 2006 Tour de France title.

However, Italian cyclist Alessandro Petacchi wasn't so lucky.

He tested positive for salbutamol during the 2007 Giro d'Italia, and despite having a therapeutic use exemption certificate, the level of salbutamol discovered was 320mg/ml above the 1,000mg/ml limit allowed and as result he was suspended for a year.

Athletics hasn't escaped the controversy either. Kenyan marathon runner Susan Chepkemei, twice-winner in New York, was also suspended for a year in 2007 after testing positive for salbutamol in an out-of-competition test, having failed to prove the required clearance.

British marathon runner Paula Radcliffe has long been an asthma sufferer and has had therapeutic use exemption throughout her career, which she admits requires careful and constant attention to ensure it remains in order and the use is never exceeded. - IAN O'RIORDAN