The first modern asthma inhaler
The metered dose inhaler was the first portable and effective asthma treatment. It was produced in 1956 after a girl asked "why can't my medication come in a can like hairspray?"
Asthma affects more children than any other non-communicable disease - and it was a teenager who first asked her father "why can't they put my asthma medication in a spray can like hairspray?". Luckily her father ran a pharmaceutical company and got a team of scientists to work on the idea. Charlie Thiel is the one surviving member of the team. The chemist helped create a drug formulation of fine spray that reached further into the lungs than any previous treatment. Claire Bowes hears from him and his colleague Stephen Stein who has helped him document his story.
Photo: Girl using metered dose inhaler 2001 (大象传媒)
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Wed 19 Aug 2020 07:50GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Wed 19 Aug 2020 11:50GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Wed 19 Aug 2020 17:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Thu 20 Aug 2020 02:50GMT大象传媒 World Service
Featured in...
Inventions—Witness History
How groundbreaking ideas were brought to life
Podcast
-
Witness History
History as told by the people who were there