PARIS — The World Health Organization’s cancer agency says that processed meats such as sausage can lead to colon and other cancers, and red meat is probably cancer-causing as well.
Researchers from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, released an evaluation of more than 800 studies from several continents about meat and cancer.
Based on that evaluation, they classified processed meat as “carcinogenic to humans” — in the same category as cigarettes — and red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
Meat industry groups protest the classification, arguing that cancer is not caused by specific foods but by several factors.
Doctors and many government agencies have long warned that a diet loaded with red meat is linked to cancers, including of the colon and pancreas.
"For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal (bowel) cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed," Dr. Kurt Straif of the IARC said in a statement.
Red meat, under which the IARC includes beef, lamb and pork, was classified as a "probable" carcinogen in its group 2A list that also contains glyphosate, the active ingredient in many weedkillers.
The lower classification for red meat reflected "limited evidence" that it causes cancer.
The IARC found links mainly with bowel cancer, as was the case for processed meat, but it also observed associations with pancreatic and prostate cancer.
The agency, whose findings on meat followed a meeting of health experts in France earlier this month, estimated each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.
Health policy in some countries already calls for consumers to limit intake of red and processed meat, but the IARC said such advice to consumers was in certain cases focused on heart disease and obesity.
The preparation of the IARC's report has already prompted vigorous reactions from meat industry groups, which argue meat forms part of a balanced diet and that cancer risk assessments need to be set in a broader context of environmental and lifestyle factors.
The IARC, which does not make specific policy recommendations, cited an estimate from the Global Burden of Disease Project — an international consortium of more than 1,000 researchers — that 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide are attributable to diets high in processed meat.
This compares with about 1 million cancer deaths per year globally due to tobacco smoking, 600,000 a year due to alcohol consumption, and more than 200,000 each year due to air pollution, it said.
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. — Agencies
