Study ties cured meats to higher lung disease risk

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who frequently eat cured meats such as ham, hot dogs and bacon face a higher risk of lung disease, researchers said on Monday, citing additives called nitrites as a possible cause.

Those who ate cured meat products at least 14 times a month were 78 percent more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than people who did not eat these meats, even after the researchers sought to account for many other risk factors including smoking, overall diet and age.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also called COPD, refers to emphysema and chronic bronchitis, which interfere with normal breathing.

This amount of consumption also was associated with poorer overall lung function, according to a study involving data on 7,352 Americans age 45 or older. The average age of the people studied was 64.5 years.

The American Meat Institute, an industry trade group, said the findings were based on outdated assumptions about nitrite levels in cured meats.

"This article in no way changes a basic fact -- and that is that cured meats are among the safest meat products on the market," said institute spokeswoman Janet Riley.

"The very premise of this study -- that cured meats are high in nitrite -- is patently false," Riley added, saying less than 5 percent of human nitrite intake comes from cured meats and their nitrite levels have declined greatly in recent decades.

The research was led by Dr. Rui Jiang of Columbia University Medical Center in New York and was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.