[tangoblue (OP)]

Yes! proccesed ham has seemingly been proven to increase your chances of getting cancer... bummer. what next, is breathing going to increase chances of cancer. jeez, everything seems to give you cancer now huh. stop breathing so much!

[cat_with_no_eyes]

Yeah lets just blow ourselves up!

[LeeE]

I believe that the current consensus is that all processed meats increase the likelyhood of cancer, amongst other things.

[tommya300]

The Nitates in the presevatives some of the smoke cured have something to do with it?

[Bored chemist]

There is a correlation between eating processed meat and the incidence of cancer.
It's certainly a risk factor and that risk is probably due in large part to the presence of nitrates and nitrites which react with amines naturally present in the food and produce nitrosamines, many of which are known carcinogens.

What doesn't get mentioned so often is that some plants, such as spinach, beetroot and carrots, have high nitrate levels too.

Personally, I'm rather fond of a ham sandwich and I'm prepared to take the risk; just as I am with drinking whiskey.

[tangoblue (OP)]

Oh bril. now eating veg is going to give me cancer. heck i was joking about breathing but... *HOLDS BREATH*

[Bored chemist]

I bet there's a report somewhere that says that oxygen deficiency causes cancer.
Keep breathing.

[Geezer]

The State of California seems to know a lot about that stuff. You might find it in here

http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/out_of_date/pdf_zip/053102LstA.pdf

Mind you, I note the State of California sometimes changes its mind, so you can never be sure.