The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has unveiled an anti-smoking campaign focusing on the detrimental effects of the habit on people's appearance.
According to the ICS, the 4,000 toxins contained in cigarette smoke can cause significant damage not only to the health of smokers, but to their physical appearance.
It said up to half of smokers have a distinctive "smoker's face" that leaves them looking up to a decade older than they are.
The ICS says smoking causes excessive lines or wrinkles, gauntness and a sinking of the cheeks. It can also leave the skin looking leathery or worn and can, in some cases, leave the skin with a grey or purple pallor.
Smoking also impedes the uptake of Vitamin A, which can counter-act some of the effects of the toxins contained in tobacco smoke.
"Essentially tobacco smoke has a drying effect on the skin's surface," said ICS health promotion manager Norma Cronin. "It restricts blood vessels and therefore reduces the amount of blood flowing to the skin, depleting the skin of oxygen and essential nutrients.
"Puckering of the mouth when drawing on a cigarette, causes wrinkling around the eyes and mouth, and in addition to facial wrinkling, smokers' may develop hollow cheeks through repeated sucking on cigarettes."
People who quit smoking can expect to experience a notable improvement in their skin within months of stopping, however. Their skin will regain lost moisture, elasticity and further wrinkling previously caused by smoking will be prevented.
An estimated 25 per cent of the adult population smokes cigarettes. The habit is particularly prevalent among young women. Half of all smokers will die from tobacco-related disease. In Ireland around 6,600 people are killed each year by smoking.
It is National No Smoking Day across the country tomorrow.
Anti-smoking lobby ASH Ireland, which is funded by the ICS and the Irish Heart Foundation, this morning called on Minister for Transport Martin Cullen to introduce a smoking ban for all vehicles. ASH Ireland chairman Prof Luke Clancy argued that smoking in cars raises issues in relation to health as well as road safety.
"Smokers must light up, hold the cigarette, deposit the ash and dispose of the cigarette - all whilst driving."
He also cited the risk to children posed by having to share a car with an adult who is smoking. According to research from the Health Services Executive, over a third of smokers allow adults to smoke in a car with children present.
The workplace smoking ban was introduced in Ireland in March 2005.