We’ve made progress against Big Tobacco, and we can do the same with the latest batch of bad air

By: Alison Davys

Outlets: Minnesota Reformer

Published: July 28, 2026

Words: 609

Last Updated: 6 days, 9 hours ago

My grandfather always told me, “I don’t want to go by the lungs.” Those were his words for telling me he feared dying due to lung failure.

I spent so much time at the hospital during his treatment and recovery from a near fatal aortic aneurysm that my parents say I learned to walk there.

His aneurysm was not a fluke. My grandfather, the oldest of 11 in a poor Irish family, started smoking …

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