Sometimes in 2015, the World Health Organization officially declared processed meats as containing carcinogenic chemicals which can cause colorectal cancer in humans. This led to listing processed meats such as bacon among other cancer-causing substances such as arsenic, alcohol, asbestos, and cigarettes among others. This declaration was further supported by a report from the International Agency of Research into Cancer (IARC) claiming to have found “sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer.”
Why the World Health Organization is just making this public declaration, no one knows. This is no longer the Ice Age and therefore, the human folk does not need the World Health Organization or anyone to tell us what is not good for our health anymore, Information technology is there.
However, we hope this is not going to be an excuse to place a ban on bacon since it is a common occurrence for the government to ban products as soon as a public declaration is made. The government has seen the declaration of harmful products as a means to create new taxes and more difficulties for the masses.
This is evidenced by the rate at which government in several parts of the world started banning and making new rules about tobacco sales and consumption as soon as it was declared harmful. For example, in New Zealand and Australia, it is prohibited to sell tobacco products without an image of lung or mouth cancer on the packaging. While smoking any brand of cigarette is allowed in the US, Australia classifies every brand as “cancer lung brand”.
Therefore, we strongly believe it is not the responsibility of the World Health Organization to tell us what can cause cancer or not. They should recognize more dangerous and carcinogenic substances which our common sense can’t tell us.
