A new study published in Trends in Molecular Medicine found that a class of environmental toxins known as gerontogens, which could accelerate the rate of aging.

According to Fox News, the toxins founds in cigarette smoke, UV rays and chemotherapy are suspected of being gerontogens.

The study's author Dr. Norman Sharpless, director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina, said that environment accounts for the majority of factors that cause aging in humans.

"Genetic studies have taught us only 30 percent of aging is genetic, meaning the other 70 percent comes from the environment," Sharpless said.

Sharpless also said that the biological process called senescence, which occurs when healthy cells become damaged and cannot divide, is the reason for aging. As the damaged cells increase within the body, they consume resources and release hormones with inflammatory properties.

"Having a few (of these cells) is not a big deal," Sharpless said. "But over the course of a lifetime, as they accumulate, they (contribute to) aging and many of the diseases we associate with aging."

Sharpless and his team of researchers based their conclusions on the results of their experiment they performed with mice. They exposed the mice to certain gerontogens and measured the senescence cells accumulated in their bodies.

Different groups of mice were exposed to various environmental factors, such as cigarette smoke, UV light and arsenic, while other mice were made obese.

The obese mice and arsenic exposure appeared to have minimal impact on senescence accumulation, but the mice exposed to cigarette smoke and UV rays were found to have aged considerably.

"Our work reasonably says cigarette smoking is the thing we could really do something about that would benefit the aging biology of a large number of people," Sharpless said. "But we're also reasonably certain there are other gerontogens we don't know about yet."

Breast cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy treatments were found to have experienced accelerated aging. Researchers tested the patients' blood and measured levels of P16, a gene that is a marker for which senescence is measured and experiences exponential increase in its expression during aging.

"Chemo for breast cancer increases molecular age by about 15 years equivalent of chronologic aging -- that's a lot," Sharpless said. "But it's not surprising to oncologists. We've known for a long time there is a long-term toxicity with these drugs."