Everybody knows now that smoking is bad for you. But that wasn’t always the case. In the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, Americans smoked with reckless abandon in their offices, in department stores, on elevators, planes and buses. In 1965, nearly half of all Americans smoked. The World Health Organization officially took a stance against smoking in the 1970s, and rates have dropped steadily ever since now down to 21 percent source AHA . In today’s society, it would be unthinkable for someone to light up at his or her office desk or in an elevator. Just try it and see what happens.

Cigarette manufacturers were forced to list the ingredients in cigarettes in 1998, so the public is now aware that there are more than 4,000 chemicals in each and every smoke. Here’s a list of the 10 most dangerous

• Ammonia used to increase the absorption rate of nicotine. It’s also used to clean your toilet, helps to treat wastewater (poop and pee) and is a key ingredient in liquid fertilizer.
• Arsenic used as a pesticide on tobacco plants, it remains in the resulting cigarette. If you have a rat problem in your home, you can use arsenic to kill them.
• Cadmium a metallic compound that tobacco collects from acidic soil. Is the battery in your cell phone low? Use cadmium to recharge it!
• Formaldehyde a byproduct of cigarette smoke, this colorless gas is commonly used to preserve dead bodies for burial.
• Acetone another byproduct from burning a cigarette. It’s also found in nail polish remover and, like ammonia, is used to clean toilets.
• Butane this byproduct is also used to help you light your cigarette, in the form of lighter fluid.
• Propylene Glycol added to cigarettes to keep tobacco from drying out. What it really does is speed up the delivery of nicotine to the brain.
• Turpentine used to flavor menthol cigarettes. This oil also can be used to thin paint and strip varnish from wood.
• Benzene another byproduct from burning a cigarette. You can find benzene in pesticides and gasoline.
• Lead and Nickel Yes, these are metals. Need we say more?

So how does your body digest these things? It really doesn’t which is the problem with cigarettes.

Coffee and cigarettes (2003) – imdb

Union airs fears patches will replace cigarettes as prison currency at lotus glen jail

Finally, a movie my sister can get behind! With a title like ‘Coffee And Cigarettes’, health nuts must be having a collective heart attack. And the title isn’t ironic. Every single episode in this string of vignettes movie has enough java and smokes to murder a truck driver. Bizarro writer/director Jim Jarmusch shot the flick over many years, gathering a wildly disparate cast to co star in his black and white art film. No scenes are connected (except by the ever present cigs & a cup o’ joe) and each quirky sequence functions as its own self contained act.

Most of the character’s names are just the actor’s names, but that doesn’t mean they’re playing themselves. In reality, Bill Murray might moonlight as a waiter and hang out with the Wu Tang Clan (who always refer to him as “billmurray”, one word). Jack & Meg White from the White Stripes might have a remarkable interest in science. And Cate Blachett might have a resentful, rebellious cousin who looks exactly like her (because she’s playing both of them). But I doubt it. Those are just a few of the oddball sketches in this movie. In fact, I mentioned those ones first because, of the scenes with the big name celebrities, they’re probably the weakest.

Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan work together in the longest sequence. Molina is courteous and affable, Coogan aloof and mildly interested in why Doc Ock has asked for this meeting. In a gem of warp speed character development, Molina goes from shy to eager to crushed to bitter. Both men are excellent. Also, musicians Tom Waits and Iggy Pop have similar oil/water chemistry, which is what makes their culture clash one upsmanship memorable. Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright set the tone with their jittery, nonsensical opening scene. There’s more, but I’ve forgotten the rest already.

So I didn’t reveal much plot. What’s there to tell, though? The terrific Molina/Coogan sequence could be lengthened into its own movie, but the rest of this picture wouldn’t work if the short scenes played any longer. ‘Coffee And Cigarettes’ isn’t really even about smoke rings or the caffeine rush. Jarmusch and the cast use those as props to create some zany bits with an “opposites not” motif. The flick is funny, a bit too long, and light years away from the mainstream. I enjoyed myself, found my interest bobbing & weaving, then left the theatre. That’s okay. Even art films are allowed to be fast food.