HEALTH : U.S. Warns on Teen Steroid Use
More than 250,000 adolescents, mostly boys, have used steroids to build muscles and enhance athletic performance at the risk of physical and psychological harm, federal health officials said today.
This non-medical use of anabolic steroids is illegal, but the number of teen-agers using them is believed to be growing, according to a report by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general.
The report recommended that the department develop a national educational program to increase awareness of the hazards of steroid use.
“I am very concerned that some adults who are charged with our young people’s welfare might be passively accepting or even tacitly approving the use of these dangerous drugs,” HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan in a statement released with the report.
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