They just want to keep the bacon for themselves.
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It's been working its way through California courts since the 2015 WHO guidelines said processed meats are carcinogenic. Under Prop 65 that should have triggered immediately labeling processed meats as "Known to the State of California to cause cancer" (like we already have on any charred food, parking garages, etc) but because reasons a decade later I think it is still being adjudicated.
Oh boy, can’t wait to see right wing screeches about Muslim takeover of UK.
IMO every food should have cancer rating in the nutrition facts, cause it’s not black and white.
I mean processed meat sure.
But you can pull bacon from my cold, dead, cancerous hands.
Look mate.
In this cold, bleak and heartless blasted hell of an existence this is one of the few genuine pleasures I have guilt free.
...do I bring up the factory farms now or come back later?
You don't have to feel guilty about risking your own health! I never felt guilty about smoking (never smoked other than in smoking areas), I never feel guilty about eating processed bullshit that is probably no good for me.
This world is too cold to feel guilty for something that only affects you! 🫡
one of the few genuine pleasures I have guilt free.
Had. "Had" guilt free.
might as well just slap cancer warnings on everything these days. Launch a massive banner to orbit so everywhere can see the cancer warning for the sun. Doctors need to hold a cancer warning sign when a baby is being birthed so it'll be the first thing they see because you can literally just get cancer for simply living.
We may as well flatten the whole planet to eliminate the risk of falling down stairs.
I hate how far people go to safety pad the whole planet when an ounce of personality responsibility is all that's needed.
Except personal responsibility is impossible when people don't know that xyz food causes cancer.
That's why they're asking for a label. So that people can make an informed choice. That's literally their entire point.
Wait till you hear about oxygen, or water.
I mean ... They cause cancer. We literally know they do. It should at least be fucking STATED. Like come the fuck on
Putting nitrates in the same category as fucking asbestos is literally insane.
It's like putting a Glock and a 10,000kg bomb in the same category, it's utterly disingenuous.
Not if the category is “causes cancer” — nor, in the case of your Glock and bomb, if the category is “can kill you”
Context matters
And fittingly, both of those categories are pretty much a perfectly overlapping venn diagram because they are so overarchingly vague.
Drinking water can kill you, and if it's too hot, it causes cancer.
Therefore "drinking water" is something that can be found it both lists. And so is "not drinking water".
But everyone knows not to and therefore doesn't go near asbestos. Almost anyone who eats meat eats bacon.
literally everything has a prop 65 warning on it
Maybe stop putting things in stuff that mean that they require this warning?
But what do I know...
The category just means that there is scientific proof of carcinogenicity. The WHO states (somewhere) that it’s not to be taken to mean that bacon is as dangerous as tobacco. Of course, that’s what everyone thinks they mean, so maybe they should work on their messaging
That's what I'm saying, putting nitrates next to hardcore carcinogens like asbestos makes the hardcore carcinogens look less harmful than they actually are.
They need to differentiate the levels of harm or else it's just another warning that people will ignore because it's on literally everything.
Is the UK going to start putting cancer labels on Gin, Scotch Whisky, ale and cider? Because alcohol is not just a proven carcinogen but also toxic to a number of organs and a huge public health problem. It is a much, much larger health problem than bacon. The anti-meat lobby is extremely passionate about their cause. They have some strong arguments about the ethics of factory farming and the environmental impacts but it does make any proposal like this suspect because you just know that some of the proponents are more concerned about the ethics of meat eating than the health impacts.
In the UK (not sure about anywhere else) you can buy bacon without Nitrates. ‘Naked Bacon’ is in sainsburys, tesco, etc. Been buying it for years.
I'll copy some of the answers from the WHO Q&A linked in the post:
Processed meat was classified in the same category as tobacco and asbestos, does that mean they're equally carcinogenic?
No, processed meat has been classified in the same category as causes of cancer such as tobacco smoking and asbestos (IARC Group 1, carcinogenic to humans), but this does NOT mean that they are all equally dangerous. The IARC classifications describe the strength of the scientific evidence about an agent being a cause of cancer, rather than assessing the level of risk.
How many cancer cases per year?
According to the most recent estimates by the Global Burden of Disease Project, an independent academic research organization, about 34 000 cancer deaths per year worldwide are attributable to diets high in processed meat.
Eating red meat has not yet been established as a cause of cancer. However, if the reported associations were proven to be causal, the Global Burden of Disease Project has estimated that diets high in red meat could be responsible for 50 000 cancer deaths per year worldwide.
These numbers contrast with about 1 million cancer deaths per year globally due to tobacco smoking, 600 000 per year due to alcohol consumption, and more than 200 000 per year due to air pollution.
How much is the risk of cancer increased?
The consumption of processed meat was associated with small increases in the risk of cancer in the studies reviewed. In those studies, the risk generally increased with the amount of meat consumed. An analysis of data from 10 studies estimated that every 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by about 18%.
The cancer risk related to the consumption of red meat is more difficult to estimate because the evidence that red meat causes cancer is not as strong. However, if the association of red meat and colorectal cancer were proven to be causal, data from the same studies suggest that the risk of colorectal cancer could increase by 17% for every 100 gram portion of red meat eaten daily.
Who cares anymore, life is so depressing and the future so bleak that it doesn't matter. By the time the average person will get cancer from bacon we'll be dead from fascism.
WARNING: Bacon contains chemicals known to the UK Government to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
So it’s fine if I just don’t eat the bacon in the UK? Then I am safe!
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