Processed Meats Are As Bad As Smoking, Can Cause Cancer: WHO

Risk of bowel cancer from processed meat is small, but it increases with consumption, says WHO

Red meat is also “probably” carcinogenic, with associations mainly with bowel cancer, but also with pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer: World Health Organisation (Photo: iStock)

Bacon, ham and sausages can cause cancer, the World Health Organisation has warned in a report released today on the dangers of eating processed meats.

The classification puts red meat in the “carcinogenic to humans” category, the highest of the five possile rankings, shared with alcohol, asbestos, arsenic and cigarettes.

The report says that 50 grams of processed meat a day - that’s one sausage, or two slices of bacon, increase the chances of developing bowel cancer by 18%.

<p>Processed meat was classified as carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer. <br></p>

<p><b>International Agency for Research on Cancer, Cancer-arm, World Health Organisation</b></p>

This follows a meeting of scientists from ten nations who reviewed the available evidence on red meat.

Red Meat Joins the 478 Items That Can Give Cancer

Now this report also defines processed or red meat.

If the cancer link with red meat were confirmed, diets rich in red meat could be responsible for 50,000 deaths a year worldwide, according to the Global Burden of Disease Project (Photo: iStock)

Beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse, goat meat, minced or frozen meat, have been defined by this report as red meat.

But the news is not startling. The evidence against red meat for causing cancer and heart diseases has been building up for years. This study is the latest of many, that the WHO has conducted since the 1970s when it first suspected the health benefits of red meat. Till now, WHO has identified 478 things that can cause cancer - in fact just breathing in polluted cities exposes us to cancer hazards, smoke from burning wood is also identified as carcinogenic.

For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed.

The meat industry has been bracing for this report for months, and we won’t be surprised if in the coming weeks, there is an attempted counter research to show the health benefits of red meat.

So what’s next for the World Health Organisation’s ever-growing list of things which can cause cancer? Brace up - the biggest health body is going to evaluate the cancer risk associated with coffee!

Also Read: Agarbatti Fumes Are as Toxic as Cigarette Smoke