Hot Dog Fans Attack Report With Relish : Health: Despite recent medical findings, some local residents plan to keep wieners on their menus.

Lou Bunn and his 4-year-old granddaughter started their grocery shopping in the Vons deli on Friday by picking up two packages of one of America’s favorite foods--hot dogs.

“We’re gonna put ‘em on the grill,” said Bunn, a lifelong wiener hound, while choosing between two brands of kosher franks at the Ventura market.

What about recent medical findings that suggest the meaty wieners could increase the risk of cancer in children?

“I do my best to pick the best for her,” Bunn said, stroking granddaughter Tori’s hair. But “you can’t give up everything.”

Amen, and pass the mustard.

That was the opinion of many hot dog lovers across Ventura County, who dismissed the newest medical revelations as more don’t-eat-that-it’s-bad- for-you overkill.

“That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard,” said 76-year-old Ted Ring, a meat cutter at Jue’s Market in Ventura. “I’ve eaten hot dogs my whole life and I’ve never had problems.”

University research, disclosed this week, suggests that children who eat more than 12 hot dogs a month could have problems, specifically a higher risk of childhood leukemia.

The studies also suggest that mothers who eat a hot dog per week during pregnancy double the risk of brain tumors in their unborn children. The researchers suggest that nitrites used to preserve hot dogs could cause the cancers.

The scientists have cautioned that the findings are preliminary and based on a small number of cases but are significant enough to warrant further study.

At least one school district in Ventura County may remove hot dogs from its menus as a result of the preliminary findings. And some parents said they intend to reduce their children’s wiener intake.

“We’re always concerned with any research like this that comes out,” said Pera Jambazian, director of child nutritional services for the Oxnard Elementary School District. “We’re in the business of providing nutritious food for children. As it is right now, we serve hot dogs once a month and corn dogs once a month. It is something children enjoy.”

But Jambazian said she plans to cut the number of hot dogs served in the district’s 15 elementary schools. “We’ll probably just end up taking them off the menu,” she said.

Christine Sanchez, who brought her son and two nieces to Wienerschnitzel for corn dogs and hot dogs, was surprised to learn of the possible hazards associated with their lunch.

“We don’t eat hot dogs that much,” Sanchez said, explaining that her Santa Barbara family had just stopped there for a special treat.

“I think a lot of parents will think twice after hearing that,” said Carol Sanchez, the children’s grandmother. Hot dogs “won’t be the first thing on the shopping list.”

But they still ate the wieners, with relish.

Some fast food restaurants that sell hot dogs have not seen any loss of customers since the potential hazard was revealed Thursday.

“It’s pretty good business,” said Graciela Soto, a cashier at Wienerschnitzel in Ventura, which sells eight wiener entrees. Soto said the restaurant sells a few hundred hot dogs daily, and Friday was no exception.

For 14 years, John Smiley has made a living selling hot dogs from his umbrella-shaded stand in the Conejo Valley. “They are delicious,” he told customers Friday. “Don’t be afraid of them.”

In addition to peddling franks at lunchtime along Townsgate Road in Thousand Oaks, Smiley prepares wieners for weddings and private parties. The medical findings linking hot dogs to cancers shocked him.

“I’ve been eating hot dogs since I walked to school as a kid in New York,” Smiley said. “It would really sadden me” if the findings were verified.

Dr. Robert P. Sedgwick, a semi-retired neurologist living in Westlake, said the preliminary findings are not enough evidence to turn him away from hot dogs.

“We can’t eat anything these days,” he said, while biting into a Smiley’s Super Dog covered with mustard, onions and relish.

“It seems 10, 20 years ago we didn’t pay attention to diet,” Sedgwick said. “Clearly (the research) is important, but it has to be verified.”

Thousand Oaks real estate agent Marc Smith said medical researchers can find something wrong with every food and every product.

“Everything you eat is bad,” Smith said between bites of a chili-smothered wiener. “There was one guy on TV who was 106 years old and ate nothing but Oscar Mayer hot dogs all his life. I think it depends on your immune system.

“And you only live once,” Smith added.