IgNobel Prize Winning, Gas-Mask-Convertible Bra Provides Defense Against Chemical Warfare 19JUL13

HERE'S a good reason for women NOT to go braless when attending their next nonviolent political protest. But what do you do with the other cup? Do you wear it over your face too or do do you wear it on your head or does it just dangle? Can the bra be divided so one can give a cup to a friend? From AlterNet......

As Syria provokes a discussion about savvy defenses against chemical welfare, a 2009 Nobel Public Health Prize-winning bra is garnering new attention.

July 19, 2013  |  

 

Now that Britain " is rushing to issue Syria's rebel fighters with chemical warfare protection, including escape hoods, drugs and chemical detector paper," an unlikely but powerful type of gas mask is garnering new attention. 

The Emergency Bra, described as a "protective garment," provides not only breast support, but also two effective gas masks. In 2009 the defensive lingerie won the Ig Nobel Public Health Prize. 

The award winning bra ( $29.99) that can be worn "regular, strapless, or criss-cross," can also transform into each cup into a face mask, should biological warfare go down. It was inspired by Chernobyl, when inventor Dr. Elena Bodnar studied the 1986 catastrophe and concluded, "if people had had cheap, readily available gas masks in the first hours after the disaster ... they may have avoided breathing in Iodine-131, which causes radiation," she told Fox.

Wearing an Ebra daily can also protect you from terrorist attacks. "You have to be prepared all the time, at any place, at any moment, and practically every woman wears a bra," she said. 

Kristen Gwynne is an associate editor and drug policy reporter at AlterNet.  Follow her on Twitter: @KristenGwynne
http://www.alternet.org/activism/nobel-prize-winning-gas-mask-convertible-bra-provides-defense-against-chemical-warfare