Officials are once again urging caution when barbecuing, following an uptick in the number of injuries caused by the wire bristles on barbecue grill cleaning brushes.
The latest injury to make headlines occurred in Canada, where a 6-year-old Toronto boy was hospitalized this summer after a wire bristle lodged in his throat. According to the CBC, Anthony Fiore's mother served him a burger from her grill and, after just a couple of bites, the boy could no longer swallow.
"It felt like a needle," Anthony told the news agency.
The boy underwent surgery to remove the bristle, then battled a throat infection caused by bacteria on the brush. Though he is again healthy, his mother said he is afraid to eat anything off of the grill following his ordeal, the CBC reported.
Earlier in the week, the CBC also reported on a Halifax woman who swallowed a bristle that lodged so far down her throat that surgeons could not reach it to remove it.
Canada is not the only country seeing an increase in injuries of this type. The University of Missouri School of Medicine released a study earlier this year in which they identified nearly 1,700 wire-bristle injuries in U.S. emergency rooms since 2002. The summer months are the time of year that these injuries are most prevalent.
The authors of the study determined that awareness among consumers and product manufacturers is necessary to promote safety.
Weber, the world's leading manufacturer of gas and charcoal grills, offers the following safety tips when using wire grill brushes:
- Inspect your grill brush for wear. If the bristles are worn down or clogged up with grease, throw it away and replace it.
- If your grill brush head is split or warped, the bristles can come loose. Throw the brush away and replace it.
- If your grill brush looks okay, you should still perform a safety check. Take a pair of pliers, grab a bristle and pull using moderate pressure, about the same pressure if you were pulling a blade of grass from your lawn. If the bristle pulls loose, replace the brush.
There are also a number of other items available to clean a cold grill grate. Use a nylon or stainless steel scrubbing pad, or find an abrasive pad and spray-on cleaner that can work together to get rid of food residue, Weber advised.
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