HealthBra

A disturbing incidence of breast cancer in prior generations in my family inspired me to suggest to my wife and daughters that they abandon their brassieres. The suggestion was not well received, so I set out to design bras that would minimize the restriction of lymph flow. I eventually created a variety of designs with the help of some product designers, and patented them (US Patents Nos. 6,086,450 and 6,361,397). In my conversations with the authors of Dressed to Kill, they predicted there would be little interest from the undergarment industry to produce products of this kind, and the authors themselves had been threatened with a lawsuit when they were about to publish their book. In the introduction to this section, I mentioned the “subsequent repair” legal doctrine. One could imagine the difficulty of a brassiere manufacturer producing a bra that is designed to overcome what might be negative health effects of their previous designs. I remain optimistic that this area will ultimately get the attention it deserves.