A Nobel contribution to peace prize
January 2008An expert on respiratory problems in the School of Medicine has helped an international panel of climate change experts win the Nobel Prize for Peace.
This year's prize was awarded jointly to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and former United States Vice President Al Gore. Professor Ashley Woodcock chaired the Medical Technical Options Committee, which investigated ozone-depleting chemicals in inhalers for patients with respiratory problems for the Montreal Protocol.
Professor Woodcock explained: “Medical aerosols used to contain CFCs, which were banned by the Montreal Protocol, so all inhalers were changed worldwide. However inhalers still contain chemicals that can affect the ozone layer so we investigated how to remove or reduce these without affecting the patients and what impact the change would have on climate change.
“It is fascinating and indeed essential work – that the IPCC won the Nobel Prize is a much welcome dividend.”
The Nobel citation says that the award made to the IPCC and Al Gore is "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".
