Xenon

[Granville57]

"Hey, why do you guys have big tanks of oxygen?

We could ask Sky and Chris Froome.

Full-gas effort leaves Froome needing oxygen after climb

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/gas-effort-leaves-Froome-needing-oxygen-climb/story-19520564-detail/story.html

The Team Sky rider poured so much effort into the win that he had to be given oxygen at the finish.

Try harder next time, and at least be a bit more informed. It will save me having to take you, momentarily, off my ignore list.

 

[TheEnoculator]

Xenon gas

I'll be honest, I didn't really follow Sochi. So this is news to me:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giant-shimano-and-mpcc-call-for-xenon-gas-ban

How does it work exactly? First time I ever heard of doping by sniffling gas.

 

[Netserk]

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=21853

 

[manafana]

was going suggest same thread for this before, its simple enough procedure from video I saw, bit like getting a blood bag but without taking any blood, bed, medical expert, and the gas.

 

[Afrank]

Merged The Enoculator's thread with existing thread.

 

[MartinGT]

Banned by WADA - Linky

 

[King Boonen]

This one item also jumped out at me:
OK, but would lugging around a huge canister of xenon be any more difficult or conspicuous than say, lugging around a huge canister of oxygen? How would anyone know the difference?

The cylinder (Specifically the top) is always white for oxygen and this is specific. The bottle body colour may change from distributor to distributor, BOC tends to be black for oxygen from past experience.

Never used a cylinder of Xenon, it probably has a green top. for reference, nitrogen is black.

 

[Netserk]

Which surely would either would be possible to (re)paint, or move the gas from one canister to another.

 

[King Boonen]

Which surely would either would be possible to (re)paint, or move the gas from one canister to another.

Moving the gas? No.

re-paint? Yes, but you are going to get in a lot of trouble, the colours are there for a very good reason and, specifically, re-painting an oxygen cylinder green is about as dangerous a change as you could make. I realise this doesn't stop people as doping shows, but you are introducing a completely uncontrollable variable, the distributor, into the equation.

These cylinders are returned and they will get very irritable if they think they have been tampered with. You could maybe get away with painting the top and removing it, but probably not the whole thing. Some evidence would be left behind.

 

[Benotti69]

Moving the gas? No.

re-paint? Yes, but you are going to get in a lot of trouble, the colours are there for a very good reason and, specifically, re-painting an oxygen cylinder green is about as dangerous a change as you could make. I realise this doesn't stop people as doping shows, but you are introducing a completely uncontrollable variable, the distributor, into the equation.

These cylinders are returned and they will get very irritable if they think they have been tampered with. You could maybe get away with painting the top and removing it, but probably not the whole thing. Some evidence would be left behind.

Stolen cylinders.......paying cash for stolen cylinders to be returned is possible, as Adidas - "Nothing Is Impossible" tells us and Ricco buying epo from hospital staff......

 

[King Boonen]

Stolen cylinders.......paying cash for stolen cylinders to be returned is possible, as Adidas - "Nothing Is Impossible" tells us and Ricco buying epo from hospital staff......

It's all possible, they're more likely to just dump the cylinders afterwards if they were stolen. BOC aren't just going to accept some cylinders someone turns up with and says they found them. They would be able to trace them to the actual sale though so it would make sense to somehow get rid of them.


Thing is, hiding EPO is pretty easy, hiding those cylinders is not...

 

[JimmyFingers]

Banned by WADA - Linky

Good

10 char

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Moving the gas? No.

re-paint? Yes, but you are going to get in a lot of trouble, the colours are there for a very good reason and, specifically, re-painting an oxygen cylinder green is about as dangerous a change as you could make. I realise this doesn't stop people as doping shows, but you are introducing a completely uncontrollable variable, the distributor, into the equation.

These cylinders are returned and they will get very irritable if they think they have been tampered with. You could maybe get away with painting the top and removing it, but probably not the whole thing. Some evidence would be left behind.

You are underestimating the level of "crudeness" in the pro peloton and surrounding staff imo.

 

[King Boonen]

Banned by WADA - Linky

I'm actually disappointed to see they have done it this way. By rights, xenon use should have always been banned under M1.2. of the prohibited list that prohibits artificially enhancing uptake, transport or delivery of oxygen. This section is meant to cover compounds that do the transport instead of red blood cells, but I certainly think it covers the use of xenon.

I would have preferred to see them assert that this is the case and just add xenon as a specific, named compound (along with argon and anything else that may have a similar effect), and outline the mechanism of action for a general, not named ban. This change they have made is basically giving anyone found doing it beforehand a free ride.

 

[King Boonen]

You are underestimating the level of "crudeness" in the pro peloton and surrounding staff imo.

possibly. But hiding EPO is fairly easy. What you need to administer it will be readily available in any town you may visit (or even your team doctors kit).

Hiding gas cylinders is pretty much impossible. And we're not just talking one cylinder, you need an air cylinder too. And you'll need a few of each, the volumes of gas required for humans to breathe are large. During my research we discounted portable cylinders for a hospital location with purified air systems built in, cylinders would have run out too quickly.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

My problem with Xenon et al is this: you're either training or recovering.

You're not training with Xenon in your blood stream, because your intensity would be way too low to effect adaptations useful for racing.

You shouldn't be recovering with Xenon, because er, you won't recover. Poor recovery = poor training the next day.

So yes, they may be using Xenon, but I dunno. Methinks there needs to be a few recovery interventions in play to make it possible to continue the training load and intensity required for high level racing as well as Xenon usage.

ie I think Xenon is a bit of a beard / misdirection.

 

[Catwhoorg]

That's actually the first time that I can recall that a substance has entered the PL mid-year.

There is a 3 month window before its fully on the PL. Most of the time it would just be added to the next annual revision and be done with it.


I found the wording interesting

The following substances, and other substances with similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s), are prohibited:

1. Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents [e.g. erythropoietin (EPO), darbepoetin (dEPO), hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) stabilizers and activators (e.g. xenon, argon), methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (CERA), peginesatide (Hematide)];


Thats open ended for any HIF stabilizer/activator. Its not just Xenon/Argon, but any thign with a simialr effect.

Of course proving use will be hard, and likely down to police action rather than anti-doping.

 

[King Boonen]

That's actually the first time that I can recall that a substance has entered the PL mid-year.

There is a 3 month window before its fully on the PL. Most of the time it would just be added to the next annual revision and be done with it.


I found the wording interesting

The following substances, and other substances with similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s), are prohibited:

1. Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents [e.g. erythropoietin (EPO), darbepoetin (dEPO), hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) stabilizers and activators (e.g. xenon, argon), methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (CERA), peginesatide (Hematide)];


Thats open ended for any HIF stabilizer/activator. Its not just Xenon/Argon, but any thign with a simialr effect.

Of course proving use will be hard, and likely down to police action rather than anti-doping.

Almost every section of the prohibited list is open ended or worded to include things that are not specifically named.

 

[proffate]

Is there any reasonable way to test for xenon? Does it leave any traces in the body? I would guess not aside from its effects on the bp.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Is there any reasonable way to test for xenon? Does it leave any traces in the body? I would guess not aside from its effects on the bp.

Some aspects of a blood profile of an inert gas user should scream doper. Especially over weeks of a grand tour.

But, try to prove it. Horner even posted his manipulated profile and still no sanction.


Cookson can now talk about how high-tech and aggressive the bio-passport is while there is nothing actually done about this class of PED. If anything ever comes of this, we'll see some low-ranked continental athlete sanctioned late in the year as a warning to the elites.

 

[King Boonen]

Is there any reasonable way to test for xenon? Does it leave any traces in the body? I would guess not aside from its effects on the bp.

I'm not sure what its mode of action is, if it's there you could certainly detect it either bound to something or as free xenon, you would need to know which form it existed in though and you would need some fairly specialist equipment, such as a dedicated mass spec (i think it's one of the few things they still use magnetic sector instruments for).

In terms of reasonable, at the moment no.

 

[Benotti69]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/xenon-added-to-banned-substances-list

WADA updates list of performance enhancers

Xenon has been added to the list of banned, performance enhancing substances maintained by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) according to The Telegraph.

The agency's president, Craig Reedie, noted that studies have shown that xenon can stimulate the production of erythropoietin (EPO) and testosterone and therefore has the potential to enhance athletic performance.

The ban on xenon, which is not trace-able, is effective immediately. It came this weekend after there were earlier reports of Russian athletes inhaling xenon during the past 10 years and most recently ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Another noble gas, Argon, has also been banned.

National anti-doping agencies were given a three-month window to adapt their policies and procedures.

 

[Granville57]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/xenon-added-to-banned-substances-list

The ban on xenon, which is not trace-able, is effective immediately. It came this weekend after there were earlier reports of Russian athletes inhaling xenon during the past 10 years...

I suppose that's what is meant by "staying ahead of the tests."

 

[Granville57]

These cylinders are returned and they will get very irritable if they think they have been tampered with.

Doesn't this assume, perhaps falsely, that someone would be following "legitimate" channels in order to do something very illegitimate? Surely there are ways around this, no?


Out of curiosity, is this the range of weights and sizes that one could expect to find xenon stored in?

http://www.boconline.co.uk/en/sheq/gas-safety/cylinder-weights-sizes/cylinder-weights-size/cylinder-weights-size.html

(If your expertise in this area was covered in detail in the past, I apologize for being uninformed on the matter)

 

[Granville57]

I should have investigated further.

http://www.boconline.co.uk/en/products-and-supply/speciality-gas/pure-gases/xenon/xenon.html

Characteristics of Xenon

Colourless and Odourless gas. Non reactive. Inert. Asphyxiant in high concentrations.

Applications

The major application for Xenon is the lighting industry. Both sodium and mercury lamps, which are used widely for outdoor lighting, such as on motorways and other roads, are filled with pure xenon.

Xenon is also used for:
-incandescent lamps
-iodine lamps (car head lights)
-arc lights
-flash bulbs
-cinema projection lamps
-Klieg lights for filming (sunlight simulation)
-illumination of large areas, e.g sports grounds
-space simulation lamps.
-Xenon is also used in some types of ion and excimer lasers.

Xenon is also used in a broad range of research programs.

Hmmmm.


And this:

Rare Gases

Rare gases such as Neon, Krypton and Xenon are held in specific cylinder packages and amounts. Alternative units can be sourced upon request

http://www.boconline.co.uk/en/products-and-supply/speciality-gas/pure-gases/pure-gases.html