People may age faster if father smoked during puberty, study finds

Experts said smoking among boys aged 15 and younger may cause damage to developing sperm cells which can be passed on to future children.

The study, presented to the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, found signs of faster biological ageing, compared with actual age, among people whose fathers began smoking at 15 or younger.

Researchers examined the markers of ageing in a person’s DNA, sometimes referred to as an epigenetic clock.

They looked for these epigenetic changes in blood samples of 892 people from various European countries and Australia, ranging in age from seven to 50.

The subjects were asked a series of questions including whether they or their parents had ever smoked and at what age.

People whose fathers began smoking during puberty were around nine month