Image from Ebbra.com cached as a bandwidth-conserving courtesy.
Jennifer Welsh of Discover Magazine’s Discoblog says
The Emergency Bra, which won both the Ig Nobel prize in public health and a spot on TIME’s list of the Worst Inventions of 2009 is now available through the website, www.ebbra.com for $29.99.
According to Welsh, Elena Bodnar got the idea in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster in her native Ukraine where, in the first hours after the reactor meltdown when air for miles around was full of Iodine-131 and other radioactive particles, more gas masks and particle filters would have prevented more radiation sickness.
As for the bra itself, aside from slightly more filter-friendly material it sounds like the only real differences between Bodnar’s bra and a regular bra are extra clasps to make it easier to take apart and to turn the straps into headbands. Which suggests that in a pinch any old slightly padded bra might be useable in an emergency.
Would it be a much, much better idea just to keep a couple of regular old disposable particle masks around for emergences? Sure. And if you’re so concerned about possible particle-inhalation emergencies that you’d buy a special safety bra it would still be better to keep a regular filter on you… but not literally on you.
But I can see how if you were a survivor of Chernobyl and its aftermath I can see how inventing an emergency bra might… ok it still sounds silly. But not feel quite as silly.
