Bacon should be sold with bowel cancer warning, say scientists

Bacon and ham sold in the UK should carry cigarette-style labels warning that chemicals in them cause bowel cancer, scientists say.

- Denis Campbell Health policy editor

They also criticised successive British governments for doing “virtually nothing” to reduce the risk from nitrites in the decade since they were found to definitely cause cancer.

Today marks a decade since the World Health Organization declared processed meat to be carcinogenic to humans, putting it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos.

Nitrites are chemicals that are added to bacon and ham during processing to cure, preserve and give them their pink colour, despite scientific evidence that they are harmful.

The UK's "inaction" on curbing use of the compounds since the WHO's declaration has resulted in 54,000 Britons developing bowel cancer, costing the NHS £3bn, experts say.