JImmy,
I think we agree that nitrosamines are formed when the bacon is cooked at high heat in the presence of nitrites and/or nitrates. Using the proper amount of nitrite at the time of curing, and since we have a pretty good idea how quickly nitrite oxidizes to NO, if we allow sufficient time most if not significantly all of the nitrosamine precursors are converted to harmless NO So adding ascorbic acid to your curing bacon further speeds up and increases the efficiency of the nitrite conversion to NO. There is little if any nitrosamine precursor available when the bacon is cooked. Nitrates are not converted to Nitrites by the same process. The majority of Nitrate to Nitrite conversion is by biological action. Nitrite conversion to NO is the curative reaction, not nitrate to nitrite. This is why Cure 2 is so effective in long term cures, the gradual conversion of Nitrate to Nitrite provides the curative Nitrite over long periods of time.
Many vegetables are high in nitrates, smoking provides a lot of nitrates. When you consume nitrates/nitrites as part of your daily diet,digestion produces the nitrosamines we are trying to avoid. These same vegetables are often high in Vitamin C (ascorbic Acid), Broccoli for example. So you are eating the nitrates/nitrites and the oxidizers at the same time. Sounds like a good plan. When I was in school I was a lab assistant for a professor that worked with Linus Pauling, the fella that said Vitamin C is the wonder vitamin. They both lived into their 90s so they may be on to something. To this day many of us take Vitamin C supplements, drink OJ, eat our citrus fruits and fresh green vegetables.
If you cook nitrate rich foods at high heat you produce high levels of nitrosamines. I may have missed something in the article but I did not see a reference to Ascorbic acid's ability to convert the nitrosamines to harmless chemicals. The only thing I saw was the ascorbic acid's ability to prevent the formation of nitrosamines. Once formed they seem to be pretty stable chemicals.
Thats all I know about the subject. Any thing you are able to provide not entered above is new knowledge to me so I hope to learn something.
Al