Brazil's Congress has decreed that in future underwear must come with warnings of the perils of cancer, a healthy 12 years after the idea was first proposed by former congressman Barbosa Neto.

According to the Telegraph, packaging for bras will advise women to examine their assets regularly, while chaps unwrapping pants will be told to get their prostate probed.

The original plan was to stick the warnings on the clothing labels, but legislators decided they'd be too small, hence the packaging ploy.

Some people have protested that people simply won't read the cautionary messages, and that manufacturers will up the price of smalls to cover their extra costs.

São Paulo gynecologist Gilberto Goncalves Gatti, though, reckons the plan will work the same way cigarette pack health warnings do. He said: "People do not look at it every time, but it always has people talking about it. I think the project will aid in the prevention of these cancers."

Once president Dilma Rousseff has put her signature to the legislation, manufacturers have 180 days to comply, or face "fines, bans on advertising or even suspension of sales". ®

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