IARC confuses consumers and media with report on cancer-causing meats

2015-10-27 7

The International Agency of Research into Cancer has again shown it doesn’t give a sausage about effectively communicating valuable data to the general public, and it has confused vast swathes of the media in the process.

Its findings that consumption of processed and red meat carry cancer risks were presented at a press conference.

“From the combined analysis of several studies there was about a 17 percent increase of cancers of the colorectum per portion of about 50 grams per day of processed meat. Now that increased risk is about similar for red meat – it’s 1.17 per 100 grams – but again the evidence if it’s really causally related is not as strong yet,” said the IARC Monographs Head of Section Dr. Kurt Straif.

These foods have been lumped together in the same group as tobacco and asbestos, in other words, known to have the potential to cause cancer. That’s very different to being certain to give you the disease.

“Processed meat has been classified as carcinogenic along with