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posted by janrinok on Sunday October 25 2015, @01:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the end-of-the-world-is-nigh dept.

The World Health Organisation is to list processed meat among the most cancer-causing substances, alongside arsenic and asbestos. Fresh red meat is also due to join the 'encyclopaedia of carcinogens' and is likely to be ranked as only slightly less dangerous than the preserved products.

The rulings, revealed to the Mail by a well-placed source, will send shock waves through the farming industry and the fast food sector. They could also lead to new dietary guidelines and warning labels on packs of bacon. The classifications, by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, come amid mounting concern that meat fuels the disease which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3285490/Bacon-burgers-sausages-cancer-risk-say-world-health-chiefs-Processed-meats-added-list-substances-likely-cause-disease-alongside-cigarettes-asbestos.html

[Also Covered By]: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/23/who_bacon_shocker/


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by sjwt on Sunday October 25 2015, @02:15AM

    by sjwt (2826) on Sunday October 25 2015, @02:15AM (#254201)

    It would be interesting to see how this relates to the ancient romans understanding that slaves working in asbestos mines died from horrible lung related

    Roman philosopher and naturalist Pliny the Elder noted that slaves who mined asbestos suffered from a sickness of the lungs and died at an early age.

    http://www.mesothelioma.com/asbestos-cancer/asbestos-history.htm#ixzz3pXfCdcBw [mesothelioma.com]

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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Sunday October 25 2015, @05:28AM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Sunday October 25 2015, @05:28AM (#254247)

    the ancient romans understanding that slaves working in asbestos mines died from horrible lung related Roman philosopher and naturalist Pliny the Elder

    I want to hear more about this story!

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 26 2015, @06:18PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday October 26 2015, @06:18PM (#254805) Journal

    I always thought that Asbestos was a relatively new man made material. Various sources "Claim that Pliny the Elder or Pliny the Younger were purported to have written about slaves dying in Asbestos mining". What I have found, is that I can't locate a source for that claim. However, I was able to find someone looking for the same thing. They also turned up with nothing, but seem to have done a bit more research. http://humanities.classics.narkive.com/c9dx25Mu/pliny-the-elder-naturalis-historia-asbestos/ [narkive.com] So, in fact, it's probably more along the lines of someone twisting the truth to suit their interest. While slaves may have died from Asbestos Mining, there is no record of Pliny the Younger having written that. The misinformation may have originated from this source with asbestos replacing arsenic. " Strabo (Geography 12.3.40) tells us:
            "In [Pompeiupolis in Pontus] is Mt. Sandaracurgium ... which is hollowed out in consequence of the [arsenic] mining done there, since the workmen have excavated great cavities beneath it. The mine used to be worked by publicans who used as miners the slaves sold in the market because of their crimes; for, in addition to the painfulness of the work, they say that the air in the mines is both deadly and hard to endure on account of the grievous odor of the ore [red arsenic] so that the workmen are doomed to a quick death. What is more, the mine is often left idle because of the unprofitability of it, since the workmen are not only more than two hundred in number, but are continually spent by disease and death." "

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