This Popular Yet Dangerous Grill Tool Could Mean a Trip to the ER
It looks like one we get through this week, the weather will slowly start to warm up and feel more spring-like. You know what that means, right? That means you're going to be spending more time standing over the grill, but before you fire it up, you need to know that there's something you do every time that could send you or someone you love to the ER.
Researchers from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery found that quite a few people have been admitted to emergency rooms because they were accidentally injured by eating wire bristles that had fallen off the brush used to clean the grill before food was cooked on it.
Apparently, the wire bristles have a tendency to fall off the brushes and then they get stuck in the grill, and often the person cleaning and cooking on the grill doesn't even realize what's happened. After falling onto the grill, those tiny bristles often find themselves stuck into whatever is being cooked and when a person swallows one whether they realize they have or not, that little bristle instantly becomes potentially dangerous to various parts of the body.
While there are many different stories of people going to their local hospital after accidentally swallowing a wire bristle, the saddest case is that of a young girl who ended up in surgery for six hours because of a wire bristle which pushed through her esophagus and caused bleeding around the esophagus.
If you want to make sure that your family and friends are safe from injuries due to wire grill brushes this grilling season, definitely take a close look at the cooking grates before putting food on them. You also should throw away your brush if any bristles appear loose. And, if you're still concerned, you can wad up a big ball of aluminum foil and then using a pair of long grill tongs, grab the ball of aluminum foil, and scrub the grates until they're clean.
You could also switch to using one of these: