NJ.com

Next on cancer roster: Grilled steaks

07/25/01

BY SETH BORENSTEIN KRT NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON-- Grilled steaks are likely to join cigarettes, asbestos, DDT and arsenic on the federal government's long, official list of substances suspected of causing cancer.

Chemicals that form when meat and poultry are cooked to the well-done stage are among 16 nominees on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' latest roster of possible cancer-causers released yesterday.

Hundreds of studies have linked these chemicals to cancer, but the question is how much is dangerous and how much is safe.

"If you eat a lot of well-done cooked meat products, you have higher risks of colon cancer, breast cancer and possibly prostate cancer," said Jim Felton, head of molecular and structural biology at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

"These things are bad," Felton said of the two chemicals, called heterocyclic amines or HCAs. "The only good part is that they are there in very low concentrations."

Every two years, scientists nominate new candidates widely suspected of causing cancer to the National Toxicology Program. The program's staff trims it to the chief suspects, which are assessed by a panel of specialists for the next three years. Their list of cancer-causers and probable cancer-causers now numbers 218.

The newest suspects, in addition to chemicals in well-done meats, include substances contained in some detergents, shampoos and perfumes, and radiation from flying in airplanes at high altitudes. For the first time, they include three viruses linked to unprotected sex, lead used in smelting and battery making, and napthalene, which is in moth balls and toilet bowl deodorants.

Among the unresolved issues, as with well-done meat, is how much of them might cause cancer. That's to be determined by researchers.

Drinking alcohol and sun tanning already are on the list of cancer-causers.

"Anything that's fun tends to be hazardous to your health," conceded Christopher Portier, the NIEHS director of environmental toxicology.

The list does not restrict a chemical's use or require warning labels -- except in California, which has a labeling law -- but is used to educate the public and regulators about cancer risks.

The HCAs in well-done meat, called MeIQ and PhiP, are created when the muscle in meat is grilled, broiled or pan-fried to high temperatures -- around 400 degrees, according to the National Cancer Institute.

But meat sliced thin and cooked quickly -- including fish and all fast-food hamburgers -- is safe, Felton said.

Critics, including Gilbert Ross, medical director of the American Council on Science and Health, a New York nonprofit organization that downplays environmental risks, say the list scares people about "the wrong things."

Ross, who says the government should spend its time attacking cigarettes, says that "what this list does is distract the public rather than educate the public in any reasonable way."

A National Cancer Institute study found that people who consume well-done grilled beef were more likely to get stomach cancer than those who ate it rare or medium rare. Scientists recently observed potentially harmful mutations that HCAs cause in the basic building blocks of human breast and colon cells.

Elizabeth Snyderwine, chief of chemical carcinogenesis at the National Cancer Institute, said adding HCAs to the cancer list "is something that needs to be done."

But even scientists aren't giving up their grills. Felton grills once or twice a week, he said. He and others advocate cooking at lower temperatures, using marinades, wrapping meats in tin foil and microwaving food first. The key is to avoid charring, said health scientists -- and Betty Hughes, spokeswoman for Weber-Stephen Products of Palatine, Ill., a leading U.S. grillmaker.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001