have you noticed whenever you see a commercial for ham on t.v. it's often set in the countryside. with a nice family and a rustic backdrop. and the hem is always pink. very pink. and one hundred percent natural of course. looks so tasty it has your mouth watering on the couch. with that's the point. but what if behind is pretty pink and one of the biggest health scandals of our era . in two thousand and fifteen the world health organization listed processed meats as carcinogenic for man. we decided to investigate the ingredients used by the giants of the food industry and d.n.a.

breaks new dates cells into sort of precancerous cells. we discovered that to impede or halt regulations on certain additives food industry lobbies have been working in the shadows for decades. just to understand that the industry is of what he makes and is this so they're very risk averse they're not going to fund a study that is bad for their business it's a thump as. it's just a baby so to speak political to this get. at the heart of this strategy of influence are the scientists who collaborate this needs industry biju for this i reasoned some compensation for my time as well as the others so months. and i consent. and the scientists who are targeted. basically were trying to shoot me down or discredit me and that's what shoot down means scientifically.

as for which go after the science to. discredit the scientists is a key element of much larger just the entire policy making process. between intimidation lies and manipulation we will uncover proof of a worldwide strategy for hitting below the belt is allowed. feeling. that it's time to eat tonight you are our guests. to find out how ham is made we visited a factory. we might. welcome to fill one of the market leaders in france and one of the few to play the card of transparency. the ham on your supermarket shelves starts out like this.

big lumps of pork meat. to add taste a little vegetable stock. it all goes into a ham shaped mold and it's cooked. and the result perfectly pink rounded slices if you grasp the basics well let's rewind a little to see the detail that changes everything. to obtain this fine there's another very important step. you have to inject the meat. a machine with a dozen syringes injects a liquid into the lumps of pork. the liquid contains an essential additive. factory manager who shows us.

these yellow sacks contain a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite. the additive to fifty. percent of the day. by two is enough to need a b. to boot i don't accept it to be invalid nor include a house full of it that's up to me. in fact he's telling us that the pretty pink of our ham isn't natural or all. it's thanks to sodium nitrate. this additive fixes the pink of the meat during cooking. otherwise ham would be the color of roast pork. that's why food industrialist can't do without it as a processed meat producer would confirm. it's of a loss is

a lot. to get along on the toilet or that. it's not on just get it or it's all clear or clean jaunts or they're not on the green. system for us. because there's only. going to. some come up to some going to it i'm not sure. that i can always. get you something. natural but without the pink it would be impossible to sell. the big problem is that sodium nitrite is believed to be a danger to public health. the additives suspected of playing a role in the development of colorectal cancer. one of the

deadliest cancers in europe. because of a phenomenon the takes place during digestion. it's chemistry but will make it simple. piece of cured meet. you think you're peacefully digesting it but what you don't know is the nitrite molecules are reacting with the meat proteins transforming them into very dangerous substances. i mean. we went to the netherlands to learn more about the effects of this chemical reaction on our health. to the faculty of medicine of maastricht university. this is where the toxicology. works. he's been interested in nitrites for years and by extension natural means. known to

use damage in the last intestine so in. d.n.a. breaks. into sort of precancerous cells. or something. to prevent professor to cook notably wanted to find out what happens inside the. body when we don't eat processed meat and when we eat a lot of it to do so he conducted an experiment with human guinea pigs. for two weeks of this student three hundred grams of processed meat a day the equivalent of eight. to fifteen we saw. the exposure to. considerably increased. threefold increase. levels that we measure. the researcher measured the

impact on the organism of this chemical mutation of nitrites. in his lab he tested the water of big processed meat eaters. so what you see here is. four different individuals. to see what happens inside the body the researchers mix this water with human cells . deposited in the test to. observe what happened to the cells. you see. everything is. but if you are exposed to. breakage it's all of the d.n.a. you see this. is. the

more likely it is that this will eventually mutate into a type of cell how does it take for. relatively. the cells. and. also. stop using nitrites then what. would make a difference potentially several thousand. in europe. that's huge that's huge because. as a very frequent disease. changes. a cancer risk.

thousands fewer cancers and therefore potentially fewer deaths just by suppressing nitrites. but the food industry has a sledgehammer argument for justify the use of. it protects us from botulism. botulism is a form of food poisoning caused by bacteria that affect our central nervous system and can be deadly. ferry right. but there's a glitch in their argument. they're already companies which do produce processed meats without nitrites and their customers are in fine form. if you happen to be copenhagen in denmark. pop into

a supermarket. there you'll find cured meats nitrites. and for those whose danish is gone a bit rusty it's. it's everywhere. you can easily recognize it by its color more brownish than pretty pink. and the best known brand is produced one hundred fifty kilometers south of the capital in denmark biggest organic processed meat plant kind of god. and. the boss a biochemist started in nitrate free cured meats twenty five years ago. and since then the danish health authorities haven't registered a single case of botulism caused by processed meat. we do not have

problems with this bacteria i would say for the last fifty years this has not been a recent. topic in western europe that was a problem and needed in just a. hundred years ago. think we're not as clean as they slaughterhouses were another clean as they are today so no worry about bacteria now we have to worry about additives that my. and if they are not necessary for some very good reasons we should not do is clear the cancer risk today is the main risks that's the main risk that they definitely and and i do need has been. led to producers to meet the main reason is that freight costs

not accept we do not have the red car of the been used to. for decades the american middle class has been railroaded by washington politics. big money over here that has drowned out a lot of oil that's how it is in the news pulse or in this country now. that's where i come in. i meant still on r t america i'll make sure you don't get railroaded that you'll get the straight talk in the straight news. questionable. i'm a trial lawyer i've spent countless hours poring through documents that tell the story about the ugly side of the internet. corporate media everything uses to talk about these foreigners coming i'm going to paint a clear picture about how disturbing how to love for her conduct has become a model these are stories that you know in no uncertain terms my pepto your host of

americans would question. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last turn. up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry if only i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feeling started to change you talked about war like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one quite different i speak to you now because there are no other takers. to the claim that

mainstream media has met its make. the news want to go as one of the few food industry companies to do without nitrites. and experts have been ringing alarm bells for years twenty five years ago or european union health report already recommended reducing the amount of nitrite used in processed meats. in one thousand nine hundred nine this report even put forward banning its use altogether. despite the increasing number of studies the european commission still allows industrial food companies to add lots of nitrites to the products. so we want to add to the commissioner for health and food safety a former health minister in lithuania question.

one gone dead levels lower i read large. garden key. of course you can do so for four or for institutions which are responsible to follow. the present laws fired its nodes. stakes. and. disperse a good amount for over an hour the commissioner attempted to pull the wool over our eyes. in spite of all the reports by experts which for twenty five years have warned the authorities about the dangers of nitrite. over these studies you don't think there are enough you know all those stat is that it's just your blood sends to transparency since the possibility of how they're going to show you to believe that's why did you do it will follow him to see and to do how to move fully. as soon as possible since parents is good this is. just sort of did all decisions

in procedures. like this isn't like if i build big. union oh but i'm not giving up european union i mean this is. going on for so now on the side of this started as a starter shows that all stand in safety in this case is why you lost against denmark in the european court of justice in this story i don't know don says. or don't need more info to mention the us i am not one who knows evidence and. so let's look at the facts mr commissioner. denmark wanted to limit the use of nitrites the european commission was against it and in two thousand and three in court the danes won in the name of the protection

of public health. i am very happy about european court decisions than european. public. that did you sound and the commissionaire to sponsor a problem is in better conditions and yet since this court ruling e.u. regulations are just as lax as ever. from my point of view we must be more and asking to change the. need for follow ups to keep. on board popular coutts but i'm just not put off it i've said it but it's but it's of course it's. time perfect that's just what the food industry wants and what it is built its strategy on for years.

because when it comes to nitrite industrialists have been waiting out the clock for forty. years of scientific manipulation blackmail and intense lobbying so the meat business can carry on bringing home the bacon. and it all began on the other side of the atlantic. if you think we're exaggerating listen to this. in the late one nine hundred seventy s. nitrite was almost banned in the united states just after the publication of a large scale. study requested by the government. a relationship between kids. was proved suggested proved and

a fairly strong one there were two thousand. very extensive study done by a well respected scientist. the banning of nitrites was announced in the press but the american media institute would bring out its big guns. in his office overlooking the capital its president richard ling spoke. needs to contain or big big thing the. billion dollars about two thirds of the whole production in the states goes into cured meats. presents a problem or our industry and or the government. we're all hopeful of a solution. armed with financial analysis the american meat lobby forced the government to back down the banning of nitrites would send poor prices

plummeting and cause an apocalypse. but it was a political event that would close the debate. in one thousand ronald reagan was elected president of the united states and guess who entered into government. richard ling the president of the american meat institute himself. the idea of banning nitrite was forever buried. the experiment based on two thousand rats ended up in the trash can. and after that the same fate would await every scientific publication calling nitrites into question. if you're wondering how the interest of industry can systematically win against what's at stake in public health the following will enlighten you. fifteen years

after the victory of reagan and the media industrialists a new study shook america to the core. if it's not one thing it's another a study finds a link between hot dogs now and cancer put yourself in the shoes of the average american joe at the time. you and your family are eating hot dogs at the shopping mall or in the street just as usual. the effect was immediate in a matter of days dog sales fell by eight percent. and given the size of the american market that represented millions of dollars less for the food industry. the author of the hot dog study that caused sales to plummet was susan preston mark . she's now retired scientist living near los angeles in

a residential suburban setting straight out of an american so. after several tense months of talks she agreed to see us. but we had to insist right up until the last minute. the lady is very discreet it's going to go from friendship. mrs preston much. yes and sometimes you go some strange t.v. . with your discoveries are processed meats the researcher was the victim of a number of attacks but she agreed to look back at her work which showed a link between the excessive eating of hot dogs and certain rare cancers in children. how did you find the relationship. well

just the way we always did when we did case control studies we started out with a group of children who had leukemia and compared them to group children who didn't have leukemia and we asked the mothers about what they fed the children and sure enough the kids with. dogs what did you think when you saw this strong relationship because it was quite a she was with dogs i was a little bit surprised and just. reserved judgment which is what. they find something they don't expect. from that moment on for the food industrialists susan preston martin became public enemy number one. in the meat lobby they definitely didn't like what we were doing they were terribly upset and i could understand that you know their livelihood was making processed meat and they didn't want any anything coming out

saying that those were not good for you basically were trying to shoot me down or discredit me and that's what shoot down needs scientifically. what we discovered went much further. the scientists had never realized just whom she was dealing with. america made a hot dog. meyer gave it to get a big hit. in the u.s. the undisputed champion of supermarket sold hot dogs has always been oscar meyer. america's number one with. a brand of the kraft foods group a giant of a food industry. so far no surprises. but what's less known is that at the time and until two thousand and seven kraft was owned by philip morris the world's second largest tobacco company

a lobby which went as far as lies and manipulation to defend its own interests notably in the big tobacco lawsuits of the one nine hundred ninety s. do you believe nicotine is not addictive i believe nicotine is not addictive yet i believe. cigarettes questioning proven scientific facts the strategy worked perfectly for years with tobacco so philip morris use it again to save oscar meyer's hotdogs. and. enjoy your stand how the multinational manipulated science to defend its investments in cured meats we headed to northern california. to san francisco. this university library holds what are commonly known as the tobacco documents millions of internal tobacco industry documents. and.

our guide stanton glantz has spent his life unraveling the cigarette makers strategies. and. he particularly remembers one phrase used by a lobbyist in one thousand nine hundred sixty nine. doubters our product since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the mind of the general public it is also the means of establishing a controversy for him everything is summed up in one word. and it was exactly like that by creating doubt that philip morris set out to discredit dr preston martin study on processed meat and cancer in children. the proof is there in the balance database of the tobacco documents.

by typing susan crest and martin you get hundreds of hits. and all in the philip morris by. the researchers name crops up regularly in the titles of memos letters and internal reports. the multinational believed her study on hot dogs would reopen the debate surrounding nitrites from the one nine hundred seventy s. so it paid scientists to go through her work with a fine tooth comb in order to find any weak points. even her contracts and grant papers passed under the microscope. basically anything that could be used against her. and we concur in the eyes of the government and the press.

corps. our culture is awash in lives dominated by streams of never ending electronic hallucinations that burst fiction until they are indistinguishable we have become the most deluded society on politics as a species of endless and needless political theater politicians more than just celebrity are two ruling parties are in reality one party to corporate and those who attempt to puncture this. breathless universe of fake news just signed to push through the cruelty and exploitation of the neo liberal or force so far to the margins of society including by a public broadcasting system that has sold its soul for corporate money that we

might as well be mice squeaking against an avalanche but squeak we must. on the news tonight the aircraft carrier u.s.s. ronald reagan docks and south korea while two u.s. p. one bombers strafe the border with north korea and rex tillerson conducts a surprise visit to afghanistan as the cia prepares new covert operations to aggressively target the taliban and the spanish government moves to strip catalonia as parliament of power as driv verges on open confrontation with barcelona i'm a troll supporting tonight from the r t newsroom this is the news on r.t. america.