Eating processed meat can lead to bowel cancer in humans while red meat is a likely cause of the disease, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts said on Monday.
France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the WHO, has also put processed meat such as hot dogs and ham in its group 1 list, which already includes tobacco, asbestos and diesel fumes, saying there is “sufficient evidence” of cancer links.
“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.
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 per cent.
The findings comes barely a week after the country joined the rest of the world in marking cancer awareness month with most Kenyans falling victims of the deadly disease.
Kenyans have now been asked to reduce amount of processed meat they consume daily.
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.