Giffnock North AC have brought the following to the club's attention. The Harriers' committee has agreed that the GNAC communication is repeated in full for our members' information.
Dear Club Secretary,
I write to you as a longstanding coach and Masters athlete at Giffnock North AC to advise you of the serious concerns about the potential health risks to athletes who use caffeine gum for performance enhancement, in case you were unaware of them, and to ask you draw these health risks to the attention of your club and its members.
Having had many conversations on the subject with those involved in safeguarding in sport I know that there are many informed people who share these concerns. Two groups are particularly vulnerable: older athletes with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and young athletes with undiagnosed life threatening heart conditions.
The environmental health officer at East Renfrewshire Council is one of those who shares my concerns. In his opinion, clubs should include caffeine gum in their risk assessment and put in place an appropriate action plan to manage the risks. In addition, clubs, coaches, team captains and others with a duty of care should be made aware of the risks so they can take steps to ensure athletes are not harmed taking caffeine gum or other legal stimulants.
After looking at the issue, my own club passed a resolution calling for a ban on the use of caffeine gum for performance enhancement.
It seemed to me imperative that all clubs were informed of the risks and of the advice that clubs should put in place a risk assessment that covers the use of caffeine gum for performance enhancement.
To that end, I thought it might be helpful to share a copy of the risk assessment (enclosed), along with some of the evidence that I have relied upon, to your club.
I would appreciate if you could forward to the relevant people at your club and would be happy to discuss further.
Kind regards
Ted Gourley
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