Smoking cigarettes has long been known for its ability to damage eyesight, on top of the harm it causes to the lungs, heart, and other organs, and now a new study suggests that smoking can impair vision far earlier than is commonly thought.
Heavy smokers with an average age of 35 were markedly worse than nonsmokers at distinguishing colors as well as the contrast between different shades of gray, reported the study authors, including one from Rutgers University. Previous research has linked smoking with macular degeneration and cataracts, which tend to occur decades later.