The Australian Institute of Sport is "determined to head off an Essendon-style scandal involving genetic testing, rather than banned supplements, by publishing a new set of ethical standards for genetic research," according to Nicole Jeffery of THE AUSTRALIAN. AIS Chief Medical Officer David Hughes said that it was "imperative that the organisation came to terms with the ethics of genetic testing and research before it became an issue for a prominent Australian sports organisation or club." Hughes added, "There's a strong chance in the next five to 10 years that unscrupulous individuals will try to sell genetic products to sport by telling them that this will give them a competitive advantage." In the wake of the supplements scandal, the AIS published "best-practice principles" to give sports organizations and clubs guidance on how to deal with supplements, but Hughes said that "this time he wanted to get in front of a potential crisis." The new AIS standards "forbid the use of genetic testing as a method of talent identification or to include or exclude athletes from high-performance programs," and give athletes the right to refuse genetic testing. Genetic manipulation ("gene doping") is already banned under the world anti-doping code but the AIS position "reinforces that approach." Direct-to-consumer genetic testing to assess sports performance is also "strongly discouraged" and genetic research on athletes under the age of 18 is forbidden. But Hughes said that "it was appropriate for genetic research to be used to reduce injury and improve health." Hughes: "That’s where the line is. But once you start to look at matters of performance you are getting into a grey area" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/2).