PERHAPS ALEX Beam’s column extolling the virtues of electronic cigarettes (“Where there’s e-smoke . . .,’’ g, July 21) should have appeared under your “The more things change . . .’’ heading in the letters section, opposite the 1953 magazine ad for Chesterfield cigarettes that states: “A medical specialist is making regular bi-monthly examinations of a group of people from various walks of life. 45 percent of this group have smoked Chesterfield for an average of over ten years. After ten months, the medical specialist reports that he observed no adverse effects on the nose, throat and sinuses of the group from smoking Chesterfield.’’
The impact of Beam’s free infomercial for a dangerous device used to deliver a powerful and addictive drug such as nicotine was negated by FDA findings released just a few weeks ago that found that these products contain nicotine and toxic, cancer-causing chemicals including one found in anti-freeze.
Like Chesterfield’s claims last century, scientific evidence will prove Beam’s incorrect as well.
MARC HYMOVITZ
Director of government relations and advocacy
American Cancer Society,
New England Division
Boston 
