Readers React: Why hot dogs and bacon aren’t as dangerous as cigarettes

To the editor: This article on the World Health Organization’s finding of a causal link between the consumption of red and processed meats and higher rates of cancer mentions an increased colon cancer risk of 17% to 18% for those who consume 50 grams of processed meat or 100 grams of red meat a day. (“Hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats increase risk of cancer, scientists say,” Oct. 26)

It is important to understand that these figures represent the relative risk, not an individual’s actual risk. The lifetime risk of colorectal cancer in the general population is about 5%. Therefore, the actual risk to develop colorectal cancer, if increased by 18%, would rise slightly, to no more than 6%.

Harold N. Bass, MD, Porter Ranch

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To the editor: Many studies have linked eating processed meats with increasing risk of some cancers. This is not new news. What is new is the classification of processed meats as human carcinogens.

But other issues should be noted.

First, the body itself produces a large amount of nitrite, the same substance in preserved meats linked with cancer. Second, nitrites form nitrosamines, which are known to be potent carcinogens.

Third, some substances such as vitamin C can block the formation of nitrosamines in the body. Whether the source of nitrite is processed meat or production by one’s own body, the vitamin prevents the combination of nitrite with amines, reducing nitrosamine formation.

That is not to say that increased vitamin C intake reduces the risk of cancer, but we should always be skeptical when studies do not carefully assess the whole issue of nitrosamine formation in the body. That’s the carcinogen of key interest in the processed meats story.

Steven B. Oppenheimer, Northridge

The writer, a professor of biology at Cal State Northridge, directs the school’s Center for Cancer and Developmental Biology.

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To the editor: Would we put cigarettes on the school lunch line?

If not, then we have no justification for feeding kids hot dogs, hamburgers, pepperoni or deli meats. Though nutrition experts have long known of the dangers of red and processed meats, the WHO report definitively places preserved meats in the same carcinogen category as tobacco products.

As both a registered dietitian and a mother of two school-age kids, I feel it’s long past time that the Department of Agriculture reexamine what it’s feeding the country’s children. Let’s kick cancer out of school lunch.

Julieanna Hever, Calabasas

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