| The research team led by Dr. John Wiencke of University of California, San Francisco conducted a study showing that ex-smokers who had started smoking in their teens have higher levels of chemically altered DNA in their lungs and blood than those who had started smoking in adulthood. The early smokers had higher levels of DNA adducts, which are linked to cancer. The researchers suggest that "early-age smoking, during a time of rapid lung growth and development, may induce long-lasting physiological changes that impair the removal of damaged bases of the DNA.' |
