Smoking can damage eyesight at age 35, study finds

But the general nature of the deficiency suggests that this does not result from damage to certain types of light-sensitive cells, such as sticks or cones, said co-author Steven Silverstein, professor of psychiatry and ophthalmology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Instead, smoking probably harms a more general aspect of the biology of vision, such as blood vessels or nerve cells.