The major risk factors for EPO are heart disease and vascular damage, but mainly these risk factors are only in play when EPO is used as a performance-enhancing drug. EPO has been hard to detect until recently. This may be a possible performance-enhancing drug detection device used in the upcoming Olympics. The inevitable answer is that it cannot and some athletes will always try to seek some extra competitive advantage. Unless there is wide spread testing, both in and out of competition, the risk to benefit ratio favors the drug taker.
Drug testing is unpleasant, but seems to be here to stay.
There will always be rumors of undetectable drugs, masking agents, or surgical procedures to subvert the dope test. And always there is the fear that the testers are one step behind and will never quite catch up. More than half the athletes said yes.