A group of scientists recently studied 109 white smokers and 23 white non-smokers between the ages of 35 and 59. The study was focused on determining if facial wrinkles are associated with cigarette smoking and premature aging.

The smokers were people who had smoked between three and fifty pack-years. A pack-year in smoking studies is equal the average number of packs of cigarettes smoked per day multiplied by the number of years that persons has been smoking.

Pack Years = (packs smoked per day) x (years as a smoker)

The study found that the degree of skin damaged wrinkling clearly increased with the number of pack-years. The increased risk of premature wrinkling with a smoking history of less than one pack-year was one, while the risk doubled for pack-years between 1 and 49. For more than 50 pack-years, the risk was 4.7 times.

Sun exposure of more than 50,000 hours alone — about that experienced by people who work or exercise extensively outdoors — increased the risk of premature aging eight times. But sunning and smoking combined multiplied the effect by 12 times.

Smoking more than triples the average person’s likelihood of premature facial wrinkling, researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. But the news might cause smokers who get a lot of sun exposure even more worry lines. The two factors combined increased the risk twelve-fold, the study found.

In an editorial accompanying the study, a physician said the bad news for smokers that their habit might affect their looks might help health officials sell the message that smoking is bad for health.

The lead author said he hoped the study would provide another model for how toxins cause damage to skin cells. As skin tissue is similar to lung tissue, the results could give researchers a better picture of what happens to smokers’ lungs over time, he said.