Moscow Drug Lab Dealt Eight-Month Suspension

The eight-month suspension of the Soviet Union’s only approved analytical laboratory is not likely to jeopardize the proposed drug-testing agreement between the United States and Soviet Olympic committees, according to Baaron Pittenger, executive director of the USOC.

Before the revelation Friday by the International Olympic Committee medical commission’s chairman, Prince Alexander de Merode of Belgium, little opposition to the agreement’s ratification was expected from USOC executive board members in their June meeting at Des Moines, Iowa.

“I would expect there to be problems only if this becomes a major issue among our membership,” Pittenger said from USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. “Obviously, this has the potential to raise some questions. But we’ll just have to put ourselves in the position to answer the questions.”

De Merode told the Associated Press that the IOC-sanctioned laboratories in Moscow and four other cities--Indianapolis, Calgary, Helsinki and Rome--were suspended in February because of “some small mistakes” in detecting banned substances.

He said that the IOC will test the laboratories in May and again in September before deciding whether to re-accredit them.

If ratified by the USOC, the agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union calls for testing to begin in August.

Dr. Don Catlin, a member of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the agreement, said that an exchange of technical personnel between the laboratories at Moscow and Los Angeles tentatively was scheduled for June to assure that both met international standards.

“We’ve made it clear from Day 1 that it was absolutely crucial that the Los Angeles and Moscow labs bring themselves to perfect equivalence,” said Catlin, director of the Paul Ziffren Olympic Analytical Laboratory at UCLA that has been designated as the U.S. laboratory for the agreement.

“There’s no way there can be different analytical standards in the two countries and have the program be successful.”

Pittenger said he believes problems with the Moscow laboratory were caused by logistical difficulties in servicing its drug-testing equipment. The Moscow and Los Angeles laboratories have similar equipment, which is manufactured in the United States. But for maintenance, the Soviets depend on technicians from Austria.

“The agreement may prove to be of some benefit to them to the degree that we’re sharing technology,” Pittenger said. “They may be able to benefit from that.”