Put ham etc in the same category as cigarettes?

I have yet to hear of anyone contracting cancer from somebody else's second hand bacon.

You are absolutely correct, it's much more difficult to find an article which contradicts the dangers of second hand bacon than passive smoking.

Just in case you are interested in another non-state-approved opinion regarding the risks of passive smoking: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100251229/passive-smoking-another-of-the-nanny-states-big-lies/

I'm not an expert about this but I'm convinced that I will neither die of passive smoking nor enjoying bacon.

Enjoy your life, don't worry too much about cancer stemming from second hand - or even first hand - bacon or passive smoking. Ideally don't even be bothered too much about the bad smell of cigarette smoke - Life's too short to believe in all these "official WHO" studies anyway.

PS: At least your opening question shows a first step into the right direction, if you are really serious about it, aren't you?

My doctor tells me that I'm going to die very soon because I'm overweight. But the last doctor I went to who told me that was skinny; and the next time I went to see him I was told he had just died of a heart attack. I'd rather enjoy life and be fat.
- William Conrad (1920-1994)

This is from an article in The Miami News 1973

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002016/?ref_=tt_ov_st

My doctor tells me that I'm going to die very soon because I'm overweight. But the last doctor I went to who told me that was skinny; and the next time I went to see him I was told he had just died of a heart attack. I'd rather enjoy life and be fat.

- William Conrad (1920-1994)

This is from an article in The Miami News 1973

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002016/?ref_=tt_ov_st

Firstly, this thread is about cancer, not heart attacks.

Secondly this post is an example of illogical thinking, or simple misunderstanding of what risk means.

If one says that 'obesity is a risk for heart disease' it does not mean every single obese person will inevitably die of heart disease, it means they are very much more likely to than a thin person.

If you took a room with 100 people in it, all the same weight as William Conrad, and another room with 100 people in it, all 60% lighter, and followed these groups for 20 years, far more from the Conrad room would be subsequently dead than from the slim room. But not ALL the Conrad room would be dead: there might be say, 20 of them left, compared to say, 80 from the slim room.

Does the fact that 20 survived show obesity isn't dangerous?

Also: thin people die of heart attacks because fatness isn't the only cause of heart attacks. There are at least 10 distinct causes. High blood cholesterol is one major risk for heart disease, and it occurs in millions of very thin people, so saying that skinny people die of heart attacks does NOT disprove, or have any relevance at all in fact, to the observation that fatness increases your risk of an early coronary.