We all get older, but are there factors that make us age faster? A study led by Dr. Wenbo Jiang at the Harbin Medical University in China suggests that tobacco smoke exposure increases the biological age of people who do not smoke.

In the first part of his study, Dr. Jiang exposed a group of fruit flies to thirdhand smoke chemicals and found this exposed group had shorter lifespans than a group of non-exposed flies. 

To see how these results relate to human aging, Dr. Jiang took blood tests of two groups: (1) people who said they do not smoke but are exposed to tobacco smoke chemicals at home or work and (2) people who said they do not smoke and are not exposed to tobacco smoke chemicals at home or work. Their blood samples revealed that the biological age of participants in the exposed group was three years older than the biological age of those in the non-exposed group. 

This suggests that people who do not smoke but are exposed to second- and thirdhand smoke age prematurely. Our advice: for healthy aging, stay away from exposure to second- and thirdhand tobacco smoke.