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As early as Thursday, SportExpressen reported that the fluoride ban will most likely be postponed. And now it’s confirmed.
After discussing the matter in a meeting on Friday night, the Fis Council, the board of directors of the International Ski Federation, decided that the ban will not take effect next season, but from the next.
“Next season will be used for more tests,” Fis writes in a press release.
The International Biathlon Federation (IBU) has also made the same decision.
Therefore, the prohibition was introduced
It was late last year that Fis announced that a fluoride ban would be introduced and take effect already for the 2020/2021 season. The reason was that fluoride is considered dangerous for both health and the environment.
But the news broke the spirits in the world of skiing and the Norwegian team considered, according to TV2, boycotting the entire World Cup if the proposal was approved.
Why? First, because the national team wanted more time to switch to fluoride-free alternatives. Currently, the serum with fluoride is by far the most effective.
Then came the following problem: How to check that nobody uses fluoride?
It is the problem of the evidence that makes both Fis and IBU decide to postpone the ban.
Problems with testing tools
The German company Kompass has recently been working on the development of a so-called “fluoride gun” that should be able to determine if there is fluoride in skis within seconds. The idea is that it will be used in all ski competitions in the future. But it’s not ready yet.
The machine should have been ready by the end of September and all the national teams were invited to Kompass to test it, but that meeting had to be canceled.
“The results of the internal tests have not been satisfactory”Fis explained in a letter sent to the national team.
And now Kompass has one more year to work with the fluoride gun.
“Errors have been observed that are critical enough to require certain design changes,” Fis writes.
