Professor says WHO meat cancer report 'political' in nature

(ANSA) - Rome, October 28 - A toxicology professor on Wednesday said that no substances in red meat have been found to cause cancer, in response to the World Health Organization report released Monday that said processed and red meat can increase the risk for certain types of cancer.
    "Consumers should rest assured. The World Health Organisation report is directed at political and technical bodies so that they'll reflect on breeding farms, on how to feed and grow livestock," said Luciano Caprino, professor emeritus of toxicology and pharmacology at Rome's La Sapienza University.
    "WHO's scientific communication is directed at politicians and those who conduct meat inspections, not at citizens. We still don't know, in fact, the causes of cancer, but only some substances that foster its occurrence," Caprino said.
    Caprino said that in order to classify red meat as carcinogenic, the problem to examine is whether or not an external substance has been added to the meat or to something the animal ate, and noted that breeding criteria in Italy differ from those in the United States or Great Britain.
    To determine the cancer risk in processed and cured meats, the methods of preserving, curing and smoking, and the toxicity of the substances used would have to be established with precision, he said.
    "At the moment the only proven thing is that burnt meat, that which is black on the outside, can be harmful because carcinogenic substances form there," he said.