By Clarinha Glock
PORTE ALEGRE, Jun 13 1996 (IPS)

Gerson de Olivieria Nunes, 1970 world champion with the Brazilian soccer team, puffed his way to fame in ads promoting a cigarette brand. Now, he has decided to quit.

“It happened all of a sudden. I suppose I got older and thought better of it,” Gerson commented a few days ago, prior to taping one of his sports commentaries for a Brasilian TV network.

Gerson, now 55, remembers smoking a pack and a half a day at the height of his sports career. “It was an addiction. Doctors always tell you that smoking is bad for you, but in some cases, their advice is of no use at all, everybody just does whatever they like.”

Gerson’s statement is confirmed by others’ observations. “The smoking habit depends a great deal on the culture of each game,” says doctor Eduardo de Rose. He is president of the International Federation for Sports Medicine, and coordinator of drug testing at the forthcoming Olympic Games in Atlanta.

“The athlete belongs to a group and behaves the way those around him do. Neither the dangers of cancer nor consideration of physical form are going to convince people (…) But feeling the weight of social disapproval really makes a big difference in deciding to quit,” he added.

A week ago a world day against the use of tobacco in the sports and the arts was organized at the initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The objective was to demonstrate that tobacco-related problems are most noticeable in those individuals whose physical condition is essential for a good performance. “Imagine how much better Gerson would have been if he hadn’t smoked!” Rose argued.

One of the WHO’s main goals is to make cultural and sports activities independent from the financial support of the tobacco companies.

Ever since the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the spaces reserved to the athletes have been smoke-free, following a result of an agreement between the WHO and the Olympic organisers.

Smoking is not allowed in the Olympic villages, in the locker- room, the medical facilities, or the athletes’ busses. Neither is the sale of cigarettes allowed anywhere in the Olympic stadium.

“Funding by tobacco companies is one of the sources of income which has been rejected by the organisers of the Atlanta games,” says Rose. The Olympic games will start in July.

“Oxygen is essential to the athletes, for it feeds the muscle fibers. When tobacco smoke mixes with hemoglobin, the latter’s function as a vehicle for oxygen is diminished, and so is aerobic capacity.”

Smoking also affects lung capacity, making it more difficult to inspire large quantities of air and “reduced lung capacity also influences sexual performance,” according to Heitor Hentschel, head of the Dept of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Federal University in Rio Grande del Sur.

The consumption of tobacco diminishes male testosterone levels, thus reducing libido and orgasmic capacity.

Hemtschel explains that nicotine is a potent vasoconstrictor (i.e., it diminishes the diameter of blood vessels) and thus blood circulation in the penis and vagina is compromised during the sexual act, which requires major blood mobilization.

“In time, men may experience erectile difficulties and the woman may have problems lubricating. The severity of the problem is proportional to the quantity of tobacco smoked over the years.”

Habitual smokers are at increased risks of spontaneous abortion and premature birth, and menopause may occur up to three years earlier.

Even while the international organisations are mobilising against athletes’ smoking, new brands of cigarettes are being launched and use the image of soccer teams in their advertising.

For instance the Corinthian cigarettes are produced as the result of a contract between the club by that name, one of the great Brasilian clubs, and the tobacco company of Sibrasa Industria de Tabacos.

“It is merely a new way of creating income,” says Luis Fabiano Fernandez, financial and marketing manager of the Corinthians. “Fans aren’t going to smoke just because of the brand name.”

This is not the opinion of the director of the National Cancer Institute, Marcos Moraes. “It is absurd. Something must be done about it.”

In this case, something must be done by the Minister of Sports, the former soccer player Pele, said Jose Rosemberg, from the Coordinating Committee for the Control of Tobacco-smoking in Brasil.

According to the WHO, while tobacco consumption per inhabitant has diminished in industrial countries at the rate of 1.5 percent a year, in the developing countries it has grown by 1.7 percent a year.

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