According to a press release on the website, WADA has suspended the accredidation of the UFRJ Rio de Janeiro Control Laboratory to conduct isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) testing for up to 6 months.
This lab, which is Brazil’s only WADA-accredited lab, became a focus point in July, as they were the lab that conducted the tests on the samples of Brazilians Cesar Cielo, Nicholas Santos, Henrique Barbosa, and Vinicius Waked at the 2011 Maria Lenk Trophy that came back positive for furosemide.
This test is not one involved directly in testing for furosemide, the substance that Cielo et al. tested positive for; rather it is used to decipher natural testosterone from artificial testosterone.
Significantly, this would have been the lab that conducted the test of Diana Becker back in September of 2001, where she tested positive for stanozol. Stanozol, as an anabolic steroid, is a substance for which the IRMS test would be used
The lab came under fire following a positive test of volleyball player Pedro Solberg for the steroid Androstanediol. A second test conducted by a German lab came back negative and indicated that the Brazilian lab erred in their test.
It’s a major logistical problem for Brazil’s only lab to be unable to conduct certain tests (though they are still able to conduct other tests) given the country’s recent history with banned substances. They have more positive tests over the last two years (11) than any other country, according to FINA reports.
WADA has not publicly called into question any past tests conducted at the lab, though a request for clarification was unanswered as of the posting.
