This Tiny Piece Of Wire Has Sent Nearly 1,700 Americans To The ER
Doctors have documented grill-brush bristles becoming lodged in people's throats and digestive tracts — sometimes requiring emergency surgery. And if you clean your grill with a wire brush, one could be hiding on your grate right now.
It can happen during the most ordinary backyard cookout.
You finish grilling. You grab the wire brush, scrape the grates clean, close the lid and don't think about it again.
But what you may not notice is the single metal bristle that just snapped off the brush.
It stays behind.
The next time you fire up the grill, that tiny piece of wire can end up attached to a burger, steak or piece of chicken.
And once it's hidden in food, it can be extremely difficult to see.
Until somebody swallows it.
This Isn't Just A Freak Accident
Researchers analyzing data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimated 1,698 emergency-department visits involving wire grill-brush bristle injuries.
Estimated emergency-department visits associated with wire grill-brush bristle injuries during the study period.
The CDC has also documented cases in which accidentally swallowed grill brush bristles became lodged in the neck or gastrointestinal tract.
That's because the object being swallowed isn't soft.
It's a thin, sharp piece of metal.
The Problem Isn't Swallowing It. It's What Can Happen Next.
Published medical reports describe grill-brush bristles becoming lodged in the throat and digestive tract.
Depending on where the wire ends up, locating and removing it can be difficult. Documented cases have involved procedures to remove the foreign object, and gastrointestinal perforations have required emergency surgery.
And You Probably Wouldn't See It.
That's what makes the problem so unsettling.
A loose bristle can remain on the grate after cleaning and transfer to food during a later cook.
You don't have to do anything obviously wrong.
You simply have to miss one tiny piece of wire.
The CDC has advised consumers to inspect grill surfaces after cleaning with a wire brush and consider alternative cleaning methods.
Which raises an obvious question: why are we still cleaning grills with loose-wire bristles in the first place?
So What Are You Supposed To Use Instead?
Search online and you'll find plenty of supposed wire-brush alternatives. We looked at the most common ones.
1. The Onion Trick
Cut an onion in half, stick it on a fork and rub it over the hot grates. Fine for loosening some light surface residue. Much less convincing when you're staring at layers of burnt-on grease and carbonized food.
2. Crumpled Aluminum Foil
Grab a ball of foil with a pair of tongs and start scrubbing. It can work on some buildup, but you're still standing over the grill manually attacking every section of every grate.
3. Manual Bristle-Free Scrapers
These eliminate loose wire bristles, which solves one problem. But many still leave you doing the same repetitive scraping by hand.
A Bristle-Free Way To Clean Your Grill — Without Going Back To Scrubbing By Hand
That's the idea behind TurboScrub 360°.
Instead of cleaning with traditional loose wire bristles — or spending your time scraping every section of the grill by hand — it uses a powered rotating cleaning head to tackle stubborn grease and burnt-on food residue.
But removing the wire bristles is only half the reason the idea makes sense.
Let The Motor Do The Scrubbing
The powered cleaning head rotates at 450 RPM, attacking burnt-on grease and residue without the endless back-and-forth scrubbing of a traditional grill brush.
Clean A Grill In About 60 Seconds
Instead of turning grill cleanup into another chore after dinner, TurboScrub is designed to get the grates cleaned quickly so you can get back to enjoying the cookout.
Three Heads For The Mess A Grill Actually Makes
The interchangeable cleaning heads help tackle stubborn buildup, everyday residue and the awkward areas around and between grill grates.
The Safety Problem Gets Your Attention. The Easier Cleanup Makes The Switch A No-Brainer.
Once you know that a traditional wire bristle can break loose and remain on the cooking surface, it's difficult to look at the old brush hanging beside the grill quite the same way.
But replacing it shouldn't mean turning grill cleaning into an even bigger chore.
TurboScrub gives you another option: skip the loose wire bristles without giving up the cleaning power you actually need for a dirty grill.
Why More Grill Owners Are Going Bristle-Free
Once you understand how easily a wire bristle can break loose — and what can happen if one ends up in food — replacing the traditional wire brush becomes a pretty easy decision.
And when the alternative can also make cleaning faster and easier, there's very little reason to keep reaching for the old wire brush.
Check Whether TurboScrub Is Still Available
GrillWolf is currently offering up to 50% off the TurboScrub 360° Complete Kit while current promotional inventory lasts.
The Complete Kit includes everything you need to switch away from traditional wire-bristle cleaning.
- TurboScrub 360° powered grill cleaner
- 3 interchangeable cleaning heads
- FREE grill tongs with the current offer
View today's offer and current availability on GrillWolf.
Every order is backed by GrillWolf's 180-day money-back guarantee and a 2-year device warranty.
Sources & Notes
Injury estimate: Baugh TP, Hadley JB, Chang CW. Epidemiology of Wire-Bristle Grill Brush Injury in the United States, 2002–2014.
Safety information: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports concerning ingestion of wire grill-cleaning brush bristles.
Medical and food images on this page are illustrative recreations.