The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer states that bacon, sausages and ham are among the most carcinogenic substances – along with cigarettes, alcohol, asbestos and arsenic. A recent report suggests there is enough evidence to rank processed meats as group 1 carcinogens because of a causal link with bowel cancer.
Something else to scare you on Halloween.
Sorry LBB, this is misleading at best if not just outright false. The carcinogens groups show how confident IARC is a certain substance causes cancer, not how potent something is at causing cancer. (See http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2012/06/14/diesel-fumes-definitely-cause-cancer-should-we-be-worried/ )
The increased absolute risk of cancer from smoking is significantly greater (10x or greater) than that for processed meats (e.g. see http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2015/10/26/processed-meat-and-cancer-what-you-need-to-know/ )