Entertainment

SOFTENING THE BLOW

Gas attacks are nothing to sniff at – especially if you suffer from intestinal ailments.

Now there’s Under-Ease – protective underwear that filters out flatulence. Made from a soft, polyurethane-coated fabric, it comes in several styles, each with a replaceable filter pad in the back.

The pants are the brainchild of Pueblo, Colo., inventor Buck Weimer. And since they hit the Web in March, reports Weimer’s wife, Arlene, they’ve gotten about 1,000 hits a day.

“We’ve got tremendous testimony from people who’ve said it saved their jobs,” she says. “It’s been a real labor of love.”

Weimer – who suffers from irritable bowel syndrome, or Crohn’s disease – has been wearing the pants for five years. She says her husband developed them after he visited a coal mine in Trinidad (he’s also a job counselor) and saw the masks the miners wore for filtering out toxins.

The couple had a pattern maker design the pants and then tested it on 50 people, Arlene among them. The verdict? Too uncomfortable. Another pattern maker tinkered with the idea for about two years before coming up with separate designs for men and women.

The pants can be worn under regular trousers or dresses without being detected, but not in the water. And they don’t filter out everything. “They’re not a muffler,” Arlene says, tactfully. “They’ll muffle the sound somewhat, but mostly what they do is filter odor.”

The pants sell for $24.95. Filter pads, which last one to six months, depending on use, can be replaced at $9.95 for a pack of two.

You can find them at http://www.Under-Tec.com or (888) 433-5913.