Thousands Of Americans Are Injuring Themselves With Wire-Bristle Brushes

Jul 11, 2018 by apost team

Summer brings the delightful smells and tastes of barbecue to the minds of millions of Americans. It’s a signal for fun family times and full bellies. Most barbecue safety precautions are related to the well-known concerns of fire and burns, but there is a lurking threat with your barbecue that isn’t so well-known - wire-bristle grill brushes.

These clearly aren’t as flamboyantly obvious as fire concerns printed right there on your grill, but the CDC has taken efforts to raise awareness about the unassuming dangers of wire-bristle grill brushes considering thousands of Americans are now being injured each year during backyard barbecues.

Barbecue grills are often as expensive as they are messy, meaning that it takes precaution to clean it properly after each use to prolong the life of the grill. Messy grills are also fire hazards as grease and fat buildups can cause huge unexpected flames and flares. Most grill owners choose a wire-bristled grill brush for the heavy-duty cleaning involved.

Turns out, though, that this safety and health precaution can actually pose an inadvertent danger of its own. As the wire-bristled brush ages, deteriorates from heavy use or improper storage, or is made cheaply, the wire bristles can become dislodged during cleaning and get stuck to the grill. Food is then placed atop the bristles and they can become attached to food. Unsuspecting eaters swallow the food and bristle(s) and suffer serious health consequences.

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Research suggests that almost 2,000 injuries from ingesting wire bristles from barbecues occurred between 2002 and 2016. A six-year-old boy was hospitalized in 2016 from ingesting a wire bristle attached to his hamburger.

A CBS article interviewed Dr. Aziz Benbrahim, a general surgeon at MidState Medical Center, about the growing health concern. Benbrahim described how lucky one of his previous patients is to be alive after ingesting a wire bristle that punctured his intestines and caused a pulmonary embolism. Once ingested, the wire bristle has the potential to do extensive, life-threatening harm as it becomes lodged, creates tears anywhere from the throat to the rectum, causes blood clots, sepsis, leakage between body cavities, and so forth.

The risk isn’t to say that your grill shouldn’t be cleaned, but rather that you may have to amend the way you clean your grill. Here are some tips to keep the danger of wire bristles away from your food:

• Spread awareness, telling friends and family about the dangers outlined above. Inspect brushes before using them, replacing brushes showing signs of loosening or shedding bristles.
• Look for quality manufacturing in selecting new wire-bristle brushes.
• Look for alternatives to wire-bristle brushes, such as wooden scrapers. 
• Take proper care of brushes, cleaning them after each use with mild soap and water and storing them indoors.
• Following each brushing, wipe your grill off thoroughly with a damp cloth if the plates aren’t removable. If they are removable, also spray them down with water.

Do you use a wire-bristle brush on your grill? Did you know about the dangers? Have a great idea on how to minimize or eliminate the wire-bristle brush risk? Feel free to let us know your thoughts and pass this article on to your friends!