Burning Issues

Wood Smoke Causes Facial Wrinkles

Wood Smoke and Cigarette Smoke are similar: see Table 2: Wood Smoke Emissions Comparisons With Other Toxic Sources. This article links cigarette smoking with skin aging. It would seem likely that the same effect could be produced from wood smoke. "The message from this research is, before you take up burning, think whether you want to look much older than you are, and have weaker and more wrinkly skin."

Study Links Smoking with Wrinkles

LONDON (Reuter) - British doctors studying identical twins have shown that smoking can cause wrinkles and make people look older than they are, The Times newspaper said Monday.

Using a new ultrasound technique to measure inner arm skin thickness doctors at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, who did research into disease and genetics on 25 pairs of identical twins, found that the skin of the twin who smoked was on average a quarter thinner than the twin who didn't.

In the case of two 57 year-old-sisters, the skin of the smoker was 0.57mm thick, while her non-smoking twin's skin measured 0.91mm."Smoking can affect the blood supply to the top layer of skin and that would damage it," Dr. Veronique Bataille, a dermatologist involved in the study, told the newspaper."Another way is that a chemical released in the skin after you smoke can release an enzyme that breaks down collagen and elastic tissue,"she added.

Dr. Tim Spector, head of the Twin Research Unit at the hospital, added that it has always been known that smoking makes people look older but it has never been demonstrated in such scientific detail before. "The message from this research is, before you take up smoking, think whether you want to look much older than you are, and have weaker and more wrinkly skin," he said.


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