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2h ago

Study Links Fathers’ Teen Smoking to Faster Biological Ageing in Their Children

Preliminary results presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress associated paternal smoking at age 15 or younger with roughly a year of epigenetic age acceleration in offspring.

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Teenage rebelliousness and smoking behind the bike sheds could affect the health of more than one generation

Overview

  • Researchers assessed epigenetic ageing markers in blood from 892 people aged 7 to 50 across Europe and Australia.
  • On average, offspring of men who started smoking by 15 showed biological ages about 9 to 12 months older than their chronological age.
  • The difference was larger for people who had ever smoked themselves, reaching roughly 14 to 15 months of acceleration.
  • Participants whose fathers began smoking later in life showed only small increases in biological age, and no clear pattern was seen for mothers who smoked before pregnancy.
  • The team proposed sperm epigenetic changes as a possible mechanism and emphasized that the conference findings are observational and early, as public-health groups urged stronger youth tobacco prevention, cessation support, and caution over rising vaping.