His work with asthmatics in Boston’s public housing projects helped to reduce environmental triggers for asthma attacks.
“We don’t have a war on poverty. We have a war on poor people,” he said.
Spengler shares the award with Mario J. Molina, who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the effects of chlorophorocarbons on the earth’s stratosphere.
The awards are given to those with groundbreaking achievements in the areas that her late husband found important, Heinz said.
The five prizes awarded are for the arts and humanities, the environment, the human condition, public policy and technology, the economy and employment.
“[John Heinz] was someone who thought out of the box. He was joyful, persistent and never saw a problem that he didn’t think there was some solution to,” Heinz said.
Sen. Kerry announced yesterday that he will be treated for prostate cancer, which Heinz did not address at the press conference.
—Staff writer Ebonie D. Hazle can be reached at hazle@fas.harvard.edu.