Judge Rules That California Must Answer Lawsuit Calling for Processed Meat to Be Added to State Carcinogen List

SACRAMENTO—The Superior Court of California has ordered the state to answer a Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine lawsuit to require California to include cancer-causing processed meat—such as hot dogs, bacon, and deli meat—on the state’s list of substances known to cause cancer, as required by Proposition 65. In a hearing on May 28, 2021, the court rejected the state’s request for judgment in its favor.

“We’ve spent years asking California to follow the law and add carcinogenic processed meat to the Proposition 65 list,” says Mark Kennedy, Esq., vice president of legal affairs for the Physicians Committee. “Now, the state must stop stalling and allow this case, which could help protect Californians from certain cancers, to proceed.”

On March 11, 2020, the Physicians Committee filed a lawsuit arguing that California has neglected to follow a state law requiring the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to include on its carcinogen list “[s]ubstances listed as human or animal carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).”

In 2015, after 22 experts from 10 countries assessed more than 800 epidemiological studies, the IARC classified consumption of processed meat as “‘carcinogenic to humans’ (Group 1) on the basis of sufficient evidence for colorectal cancer.” The experts highlighted a meta-analysis that concluded that each 50-gram portion of processed meat (about one hot dog) eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. Research shows that eating 50 grams of processed meat daily also increases the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and overall cancer mortality.

Throughout 2017, 2018, and 2019, the Physicians Committee urged the OEHHA to follow the law and list processed meat as a cancer-causing substance. In February 2018, the Physicians Committee backed a resolution introduced in the California State Legislature by then-Sen. Ricardo Lara urging the OEHHA to add processed meat to Proposition 65.

Plaintiffs also include Physicians Committee members Donald D. Forrester, MD, a family medicine physician in Sacramento, Calif., and Anna Herby, RD, CDE, who resides in Mendocino County. Ms. Herby works with patients to help prevent and reverse chronic diseases through nutrition.

The American Cancer Society estimates that California will have 15,880 new cases of colorectal cancer in 2020 and 5,390 deaths from the disease.

“Tens of thousands of Californians are diagnosed or die from colorectal cancer every year,” says Donald D. Forrester, MD. “Adding processed meat to Proposition 65 would provide first-line defense against this deadly disease.”