Can Hot Dogs 'Wreck Your Life?' New Indiana Billboard Tells NASCAR Fans Yes

Move over cigarettes. There's an alleged new cancer-causing stick in town. But according to one health organization, the new deadly product isn't made of tobacco, but rather meat. That's because its apparently a hot dog.

The group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has paid to place a prominent billboard outside the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway warning patrons of the dangers of hot dogs. It features a group of roasted wieners popping out of a cigarette box with the statement, "Warning: Hot Dogs Can Wreck Your Health:"

It directs the public to a website called cancerproject.org, where a press release explains the group's position.

"According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, just one 50-gram serving of processed meat (about the amount in one hot dog) consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent," the release says.

“A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave,” the group's nutrition education director Susan Levin says in the release.“Processed meats like hot dogs can increase your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and various types of cancer. Like cigarettes, hot dogs should come with a warning label that helps racing fans and other consumers understand the health risk.”

It adds: "A review in the journal Diabetologia found that those who regularly eat processed meats increase their risk for diabetes by 41 percent."

The campaign is a well-timed one. Thousands are expected to file into the popular race track for the running of the Brickyard 400, hot dogs in hand.

(H/T: Fark)

UPDATE:

Blaze commenter RabiaDiluvio posted and e-mailed an interesting link alleging that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is really a front organization for animal rights activists.

The website activistcash.com says:

The American Medical Association (AMA), which actually represents the medical profession, has called PCRM a “fringe organization” that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.”

That site is a service of the Center for Consumer Freedom, which has an entire website devoted to debunking the physician group.

It points to a Feb. 2004 Newsweek article to support its claim:

“Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians,” Newsweek wrote in February 2004. The respected news magazine continued:

[PCRM president Neal] Barnard has co-signed letters, on PCRM letterhead, with the leader of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an animal-rights group the Department of Justice calls a “domestic terrorist threat.” PCRM also has ties to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. An agency called the Foundation to Support Animal Protection has distributed money from PETA to PCRM in the past and, until very recently, did both groups’ books. Barnard and PETA head Ingrid Newkirk are both on the foundation’s board.

Currently, that Newsweek article is listed but unavailable on the Newsweek site.

Red more about the Center for Consumer Freedom's charges here.