To the Editor:
The piece by Dr. Gabe Mirkin where he describes John Wayne’s lifestyle and equates it to the development of cancer is interesting and informative, but I believe inaccurate and misleading in one respect. He lists a series of Wayne’s consumption of what he purports to be known carcinogens (smoking nine packs of cigarettes daily, alcohol in excess, etc.) which I believe to be accurate but he also includes red meat. I am not a doctor, but I have read extensively on whether red meat causes cancer and there, to date, is no definitive data linking red meat to cancer.
There are studies that seem to point to a possible relationship between colon cancer and extremely high consumption of red meat, but even that study can’t prove the causal relationship to scientific certainty. I feel Dr. Mirkin has a personal (not scientific) bias against red meat (he always mentions this in his presentations) and that’s his prerogative, but I don’t think it’s helpful to list red meat as a proven carcinogen while there is no definitive science to back it up.
This is not to disparage Dr. Mirkin, who I admire and respect, but to point out the fact that red meat is not proven to be a carcinogen. After all, smoking has been proven to be a carcinogen and the FDA requires a warning on each pack of cigarettes. You don’t see such a warning on your package of hamburger.
Larry Moran
Village of Mallory Square