Could there be more SMOKING?!

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Ed was constantly smoking but he refused to drink any sort of alcohol. Both are poisons but one is slower than the other. Is there something there?

Frank Sinatra was once asked to what he attributed his longevity in show business. He replied "When I was a young man, smoking, drinking and red meat were not considered bad things".

Everyone is missing the point of the smoking as it pertains to this film. The cinematographer, Roger Deakins, decided that since the choice was made to shoot in black and white, he wanted to make the most beautiful looking black and white film ever shot. To that end, being the master of lighting and composition that he is, he wanted to use cigarette smoke extensively to the point that it becomes another "character" in the film. The results are sublime.

There might have been more but they needed to take time out to down some alcohol

I grew up in the 1950s and '60s and every adult in my family, their friends, and coworkers smoked. So did most of the teenagers. People smoked in restaurants, grocery stores, and movie theaters. There were ashtrays on the tables in the public library. I had two doctors who would smoke when they were with you in the examining room. I had a job as a box boy in a grocery store and one of my tasks was to go over the whole floor with a wide broom once an hour to sweep up the cigarette butts. My parents smoked constantly, except when they were in the shower or asleep. The inside of our house and cars were a continuous haze of smoke, and everything smelled like it. Smoking was part of my dad's ideology, and I think he was actually a little disappointed that I never developed the habit. Eventually both he and my mother slowly suffocated from emphysema and lung cancer, but at least they looked cool.