ANN ARBOR, Mich. and FRISCO, Tex – NSF International, a global public health and safety organization, has formed a partnership with the Taylor Hooton Foundation, an anti-steroid foundation, to help protect young athletes from the dangers of performance enhancing drugs. As part of the partnership, NSF International is developing educational resources for the Foundation to use to educate students at seminars and high school presentations.

These resources include www.nsfsport.com, a website NSF launched last year to provide educational information and news on sports nutrition to athletes. The website includes a searchable database of NSF-certified sports nutrition products that have been screened for athletic banned substances.

The Taylor Hooton Foundation for Fighting Steroid Abuse is a non-profit corporation created in memory of Taylor E. Hooton, a 17-year old student athlete who died in 2003 as a result of anabolic steroid use. Together, NSF International and the Taylor Hooton Foundation will help educate amateur athletes, their parents and coaches about the dangers of performance enhancing drug use, including those potentially found in unmarked, untested and non-certified dietary supplements.

In 2002, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) tested 240 over-the-counter sports nutrition products and found that 18 percent contained banned substances such as anabolic androgenic steroids that were not listed on the product’s label.

“Over-the-counter sports supplements like those tested by the IOC are available everywhere and can be purchased by anyone. The best way to protect young athletes is to educate them on the dangers of steroids and steroid-like substances and point them to sport nutrition products that have been tested and certified to be free of these substances,” said Don Hooton, President of the Taylor Hooton Foundation.

NSF International developed an Athletic Banned Substances Certification program (Certified for Sport™) in 2004 in response to the growing demands by athletes, coaches, team owners and others concerned about banned substances in sports nutrition products.