
Canadian surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes - curtis
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/barbecue-brushes-dangers-swallow-throat-wire-bristle-dempsey-1.3741578
======
genkimind
This is a real problem.

My wife had been having extreme stomach pain for months, multiple trips to the
emergency room, gastroenterologist, nothing could be found. She described that
she felt that there was a hole in her stomach, the doctors called it stress.

On her final ER visit (two months after the pain began), something showed up
in the CT scan (the 3rd one). Embedded in her belly fat was a wire. Everything
clicked and I realized we had had steak on the grill the day that the problems
started. She went into surgery and had the grill brush wire removed.

The wire had poked a hole in her stomach, and somehow worked its way out
through the abdominal muscles into her belly fat. We are grateful that it
exited that way, instead of into another major organ.

Beware.

~~~
tptacek
Fuck this I'm done with brushes.

~~~
iLoch
I'm done with doctors. Stress? Give me a break.

~~~
peeters
I think that's a bit unfair. If they went to the point of two CT scans (which
showed nothing), it's not like they were being dismissive. They were probably
trying to give the best diagnosis they could with the evidence available.

~~~
bobwaycott
I'm not one to typically experience much stress, but it sure sounds like a
dubious explanation for the symptoms.

------
bfuller
A trick I learned from Argentinian circus people, who make amazing BBQ, is let
the grill heat up and then cut an onion in half to rub on the grate. It
imparts a nice flavor and cleans the grill very well.

~~~
jrowley
Off topic but any other tricks you learned from Argentinian circus people? Or
circus people in general?

~~~
yitchelle
Our kids in a standard German school has one whole week devoted to learning
circus tricks and acts. At the end of the week, they put on a show for the
parents and the local community. Money raised from the ticket sales goes back
to the school. The kids loved it, and so did the parents.

They did things like walking on glass, eating fire, trapeze and other crazy
acts.

~~~
jimktrains2
Sounds like an insurance nightmare.

~~~
gumby
My kid went to welding summer camp when he was 8. 12 kids, one instructor;
they learnt welding, brazing, soldering, other stuff I don't know the English
for. Everyone had a good time and made some amazing things. Nobody suggested
there was anything to worry about, but then again those parents wouldn't have
signed their kids up. But I never met German parent who were particularly
paranoid.

German kids videos and books can be really good too, like the 'was ist was'
series that, say, really shows you how internal combustion engines work. I say
"can be" because there's a lot of crap there too.

~~~
bfuller
Dallas international school currently has a circus program for elementary and
high school students through lone star circus.

------
04rob
"Kevin Gallant, of Summerside, P.E.I., had part of his small intestine removed
after he swallowed a bristle from a barbecue brush.

 _" I was very ill, probably as close to death as you want to be,"_ he said
from his home in Summerside, P.E.I.

 _" The barbecue brush bristle had started to move, so it was trying to come
through the wall of my small intestine. So I was told I was very fortunate
that they found it, because it would have just pierced through the small
intestine into one of my major organs until it found a spot that it would have
just killed me."_

He still uses a bristle brush, but inspects the barbecue thoroughly after
using it."

Why!?!?!?

~~~
userbinator
Why not? The brush cleans perfectly well and he's now aware of the risks.
He'll probably inspect his food a lot more thoroughly too...

~~~
gleenn
They have non-bristle brushes too now. If I almost died I'd probably never eat
BBQ again

~~~
themihai
I said the same about fish...and I still eat fish.

------
dangero
This issue is actually not isolated to just barbecues and barbecue brushes
although the fact that it gets into your food does make it worse.

A few weeks ago my friend invited me to their high class HOA pool that had a
sand beach. Wading around in about a foot of water I felt something pierce my
foot when I took a step. When I pulled my foot out of the water to see what it
was I could see it was a thin piece of metal and it had gone in all the way to
my bone.

I concluded it probably came off a metal brush they use around the pool. Maybe
something like this: [https://www.amazon.com/Performance-
Tool-W1148-Stainless-3-Pi...](https://www.amazon.com/Performance-
Tool-W1148-Stainless-3-Piece/dp/B000N3209S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1472800536&sr=8-2&keywords=metal+brush)

That's when I realized that these types of metal brushes are a huge
environmental hazard in general. They should probably be illegal in certain
settings -- sand beaches being one of them.

~~~
GigabyteCoin
I reached down to grab a piece of wood to place into my campfire years ago and
felt this unbelievably jarring pain go through my thumb (considering how
gently I had placed my hand down to grab the piece of wood, the level of pain
was immense).

There was a very tiny piece of something stuck in my thumb, which I was able
to remove but not able to inspect very closely as it was pitch black outside
and I was working with a flashlight.

I wrote it off as most likely being a splinter of glass from somebody's
smashed beer bottle that had gone straight through my skin.

Reading this, however... it was much more likely a metal bristle from
somebody's cheap camping brush that they used to clean their camping grill.

~~~
pcunite
ouch! I could actually feel your pain.

~~~
softawre
No joke.

------
OrdaGarb
Related: If you tenderize with a Jaccard-like tool, examine the teeth very
closely before you cook your meat. I have had the blades break in half
longitudinally where it still looked like a full blade, but had actually
"delaminated" toward the end and left a 15mm chunk of pointed metal in my
steak. It ended up in my gums.

I still use the broken blade set, but simply make sure it has all the parts
before moving on. Nothing tenderizes quite like it in my experience. Had I
swallowed that piece however it would have been a bad situation.

Pic: [https://imgur.com/a/ZdWBg](https://imgur.com/a/ZdWBg)

~~~
SamBam
" _I love this tenderizer and highly recommend them, just look out for busted
blades!_ "

Waaa???

If the blade can delaminate in that way, I would in _no way_ recommend them.

~~~
OrdaGarb
I see and appreciate your point, and yeah, you might get a little dead, but
they can turn a Walmart roast into a tender and delicious cut of meat with the
right cooking strategy.

Like anything, it's a trade-off, and a good test of your evolutionary
worthiness as a human. Pay attention to what you're doing or die.

------
pippy
It's interesting many countries such as the US, UK and NZ have banned rare
earth magnets due to fear of people swallowing them. The data they used to
back the banning included all products ingested, and vice wrote up an article
here: [http://www.vice.com/read/the-consumer-product-safety-
commiss...](http://www.vice.com/read/the-consumer-product-safety-commission-
is-leading-a-crusade-against-magnets-122)

If a product is causing similar health risks, isn't it fair to apply the same
ban to it too?

~~~
yladiz
In the cases of product being banned for safety, one of the reasons it's
generally due to is the potential of swallowing it and causing harm or choking
being high enough that a simple warning isn't sufficient. E.g. Buckyballs
(swallow two separate groups of those and you'll be lucky to be in IC), Kinder
Surprise (sucks, but somewhat understandable). The brush, while potentially
dangerous, isn't probably dangerous enough to cause a ban since you don't
swallow the brush as a whole and the likelihood of harm, while potentially
severe, is small. It's also worth noting that things are generally banned if
they'll affect children but not adults, which is a primary reason why the two
examples I mentioned were banned.

~~~
riffraff
> Kinder Surprise (sucks, but somewhat understandable)

I still don't understand this, the explanation I have read is that it's due to
the inner plastic being totally hidden, but the potential to swallow a Kinder
Surprise whole is very low, unless your kids are _really_ large.

~~~
yourapostasy
I was going to sardonically quip that kids in the US _are_ really large [1].
That only works if only the US bans the candy. I looked up Kinder Surprise on
Wikipedia [2] and found out that Chile also bans it. So the quip doesn't work.
Completely unsubstantiated, but I cynically interpret the ban as bribery
purchased by Frito-Lay and General Mills to protect their Cracker Jack product
[3] and breakfast cereal products. The older I get the more I realize that
many seemingly "safety"-oriented rulings and legislation that strike many
citizens as a faintly picayune concern to enshrine into bureaucratic
machinations and fund enforcement via taxpayers are just flat-out purchased
from politicians to stifle competition.

[1] [http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-u.s-most-obese-
fatt...](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-u.s-most-obese-fattest-kids-
by-a-mile-tops-for-poor-teen-health/article/2573993)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinder_Surprise)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack)

~~~
yladiz
Well, Chile's ban is different than US's ban. The US bans it because it's a
potential public health risk[1], because someone may choke on the toy inside,
while Chile bans it because they apparently banned all kinds of advertisements
and products aimed at kids that have gifts that come with the product (I don't
know the rationale; there is an article linked on Wikipedia but it's in
Spanish and didn't translate well. My guess is that they want to reduce
childhood nutrition issues by not letting manufacturers give presents with
candy.).

As an aside, if you have never had a Kinder Surprise before, there is an image
on the Wikipedia page, and the egg is decent sized -- I could _probably_ fit
it in my mouth whole, but it wouldn't be comfortable. The toy inside is also
inside of a capsule that I would find really hard to believe could even be
swallowed because it's at least as big as a US quarter but about 1 inch tall
if my memory serves me correctly, but I guess 3 kids deaths in the UK prove me
wrong.

1: "The embedded non-nutritive objects in these confectionery products may
pose a public health risk as the consumer may unknowingly choke on the
object.", see
[http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_107.html](http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_107.html).

~~~
yourapostasy
> ...but it wouldn't be comfortable...

Yes, when I saw the size of the capsule and toys inside, I thought there were
many common household items that were far, far easier to ingest, were way more
within daily reach than candy, and enforcing the ruling on these toys was
arguably a waste of limited taxpayer-funded manpower.

------
utternerd
I did this a few months back and replaced it with a "cool cleaning" nylon-
based one after I started noticing the extremely tiny metal bristles falling
onto my grill. My wife said I was crazy -- today I feel vindicated.

~~~
moonshinefe
well obviously you aren't crazy at all, who wants tiny metal bristles falling
off and potentially getting in their food? Even without this specific case,
that sounds awful and dangerous.

------
sverige
I follow Al Bundy's advice. I never clean my grill. "Ashes from the past for
burgers of the future."

~~~
logfromblammo
I was going to post exactly this before realizing that someone else
undoubtedly posted it before me, and I should upvote them.

I will only clean my charcoal grill with some hotter fire and a good whack
from the grill spatula. Excess [0] ashes go into a bucket for later non-
cooking uses. The carbonized residues on the grill create an ablative non-
stick coating for any foods you put on it. Also, they make your grill marks
black, when they might otherwise be red from the rust.

[0] Excess being defined as so much that the charcoal won't light.

------
tvongaza
Slight related topic: Anyone else BBQ a lot, reach to open a beer bottle, but
are missing an opener? Why don't they make every BBQ utensil have a decent
bottle opener at the end. Better yet, every utensil in your house?

Please take this idea and run with, just tell me where to buy a set.

~~~
thatcat
You can use the flat edge of anything with a little leverage to pry a bottle
cap off using your fingers as a fulcrum beneath the cap.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm0ZkABVqjQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm0ZkABVqjQ)

~~~
stephenr
if you have sturdy (ie like volkswagen/audi/bmw) keys, you can use a key in a
similar fashion

~~~
eric_h
Bic lighters are exceptionally good for this (one of the important life skills
I learned in college).

------
n00b101
Quick search brings up what looks like a viable alternative:
[http://www.thegreatscrape.com/](http://www.thegreatscrape.com/)

~~~
Cyph0n
Good product, but the copy is _terrible_.

> It is made of solid hard wood and is designed for years of grilling
> pleasure.

~~~
sgc
Ii you follow the link at the bottom of the page to paimn.org, it looks like
this is a product made by someone with autism. I don't know if you find that
copy cliche or full of innuendo, but I am rather certain it is a harmless
error.

------
kaffeinecoma
Paranoid patient question: when one goes for an MRI, is there any kind of scan
for foreign metal objects? I'm sure they ask if you have any devices
implanted, but do they actually check for the unexpected? What would happen if
you had one of these little bristles and you didn't know it?

~~~
jshevek
I'm not aware of any such scan, and I'd feel a lot safer if there were such a
tool. I simply can't be sure if I have any embedded metal fragments, and do
not want to discover this by having any such pieces rip through my body.

------
shanecleveland
I've been using an alternative over the summer:
[https://www.amazon.com/GrillFloss-Ultimate-Grill-Cleaning-
To...](https://www.amazon.com/GrillFloss-Ultimate-Grill-Cleaning-
Tool/dp/B000PAV28E)

Works great. You have to have the round, stainless grill grates.

~~~
mhb
It looks like that would take a lot longer than I want to spend on that task.

~~~
jaytaylor
It'll only need to be used on the bars with gunk on their underside, so you
wouldn't necessarily have to do it for each bar.

------
woliveirajr
This thread caught my attention because I never heard of similar things here
in Brazil (at least not in the south, where BBQ is a basic need)

Reasons:

1 - we use lifts (?): like this one [1]

2 - people, in general, clean the grill using some rough paper while the grill
is still hot, then wash it with some sponge, water and soap.

Hardly something that has metal (like brass or steel brush) is used, since
they affect the grill surface with small scratches that will accumulate more
fat next time,in an endless loop.

[1]
[http://www.gudim.com.br/produtos/espeto_duplo.png](http://www.gudim.com.br/produtos/espeto_duplo.png)

~~~
oftenwrong
>lifts (?)

"Spits" (as in "spit-roasted"), or "skewers"

------
jly
I just threw mine away.

Great tip from the article: use crumpled up aluminum foil to clean the grates,
instead.

~~~
SuperPaintMan
Second. I was fortunate to have the bristle get jammed into my gums avoiding a
ER trip. A few minutes of swearing and tweezering later I was fine :)

Stone scrapers are another viable alternative.

------
b-orges
"During a discussion on ingested foreign objects that are difficult to
remove..."

I wish I had been a fly on the wall for that discussion.

~~~
nikatwork
Just go drinking with some nurses, they always have good foreign object
stories. My fave was about a morbidly obese person who got a whole BBQ chicken
lodged in their throat. They called in half the department to "observe" that
one.

~~~
bloaf
You gotta remember to chew those pork chops

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBnnon_iZOM&t=2m50s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBnnon_iZOM&t=2m50s)

------
honopu
My father in law actually created a brush type tool to clean a grill, but has
no chance of losing bristles.

[http://grillbros.com/](http://grillbros.com/)

I know he has several hundred of these to sell. They work well but he
definitely needs a distributor.

~~~
sintaxi
Awesome. You should tell your father to double down on this news. This is
marketing gold.

------
arcticfox
The last time I was in the emergency room the nearest other patient had
partially swallowed a needle. I can still hear the attempt to get it out...

So nope, never going to get close to one of these brushes. Good tip.

------
dylanz
Yikes. I just threw mine out after reading this. Mine was so old, bristles
actually fell out when I shook it.

------
tedmiston
Do commercial restaurant grills use the same?

~~~
jagger27
I've seen most places use steel wool instead. The fibres do still find their
way into food, unfortunately. But the fibres are often much softer and far
less dangerous.

~~~
kozak
I once bought a burger that had a piece of steel wool in it.

------
dghughes
This would be perfect
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcvcEg0xGYY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcvcEg0xGYY)

And only about $250,000 each.

~~~
peeters
Could probably just throw out the grill at that point, that thing should cook
steak just fine.

~~~
dghughes
There is a video of the operator putting his finger in the path of the beam
and it just goes over it no harm leaving a void.

------
djsumdog
I had no idea this was a problem. I've been using those things for decades.
O_o

------
perseusprime11
Here's a grill brush that you can use with a cut onion. Safe to use and no
worry about bristles.

Sorry here's the link: [http://thegrillion.com/](http://thegrillion.com/)

------
Pxtl
How is it legal to sell these things then? Why are they still on shelves? It's
dangerous at its intended purpose, making it worse-than-useless.

~~~
colejohnson66
They're less dangerous than cars and yet people still drive

~~~
justinlardinois
I'm not sure I see the comparison. There are plenty of similarly priced
alternatives to barbecue scrapers that work just as well while not being as
dangerous. What are the alternatives to cars?

~~~
riffic
Planning that favors alternative modes such as walking, bicycling, and public
transit.

~~~
justinlardinois
"Planning" is not a product that a consumer can buy, and even then walking,
bicycling, and public transit are most useful when you live in a densely
packed area and aren't too concerned about traveling outside it.

Plus, I was being contrary to what my parent said about the dangers of cars.
Aren't bicycles more dangerous?

------
goldenkey
Time to throw my grill brush away. It always hurt when I accidently touched it
anyhow. Steel wool is probably safer and better anyhow.

~~~
zackbloom
My grill cleaning method has always been to put a layer of tinfoil on the
grill, shiny side down. Ten minutes or so of direct heat and the grill is
clean, just like a self-cleaning oven. If there's any ash left, a quick pass
with a wet paper towel takes care of it.

~~~
wahnfrieden
I stupidly used relatively thin/cheap tinfoil when I tried this and it flaked
all over my grill after having it heat up. Just a word of caution...

~~~
nommm-nommm
Yeah, Aluminium foil is definitely not something you can go generic with.

~~~
goldenkey
I learned this the hard way. Cheap aluminum foil falls apart really easily at
the kind of heats you would want to use for baking or grilling. It's worth it
to even buy the Reynolds extra strength stuff. Worst part of grilling is if
your tin foil gets holes in it, and now you've screwed up the moisture
barrier.

------
CodeWriter23
I never use them. I have a heavy gauge spatula that I use to scrape the top,
then hold it at a 45 degree angle to scrape in between the wires that form the
rack. The bottom doesn't get clean. Nobody has ever gotten sick nor required
surgery.

As a result of reading this article and thread though I will never use one and
proactively warn friends and family about them.

------
anonbanker
Almost as bad as ingesting bristles is how commonly people are using metal
brushes to clean their teflon-coated grill equipment. The teflon breaks off,
becoming part of the food you're cooking. Ingesting teflon flakes (at/from
grill temperatures above 450 degrees) is a direct route to autoimmune disease
due to the fluoropolymers, as well as higher cancer risk from
perfluorooctanoic acid.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen metal brushes next to teflon-coated
grills. Or even worse, visibly flaked teflon coating on grills heated to high
temperatures. Suffice it to say, it's been often enough to remark on. Should
you decide to own teflon-coated grill equipment, use an onion to clean your
grill next time; it's far less abrasive.

------
crypt1d
Shouldn't the manufacturer of these brushes be held responsible for such
issues?

~~~
brainfire
The answer to this depends on information not present in the article, and is
probably not possible to answer without an actual lawsuit. Are the
manufacturers taking reasonable steps to avoid the problem? If so they're
probably not responsible.

If there are internal emails at the company saying "well our testing shows it
might kill people but we'll save 2 cents per brush if we accept weaker wire
attachments" then sure. I doubt it's that clear cut.

------
tekni5
I use one of these bristle brushes because I didn't know better, I've also
even seen a few bristles fall out before & had me a bit concerned.

However I always end up microwaving for 30 seconds after, because by the time
I've let the meat rest and turned off the grill my food isn't as warm as I
want it.

So maybe I've been lucky, as I figure there would have been a reaction if
there was metal in the microwave.

Anyways now I'm looking for an alternative, I'm thinking of using a large
wooden spatula and let it conform to the grill overtime.

~~~
huherto
I heat plates where I serve the steak. It helps to keep it hot while you are
eating it.

~~~
tekni5
Interesting, how do you heat the plate?

------
walrus01
I suppose it's safer to use a BBQ brush with really heavy gauge, thick steel
bristles that are less likely to fall out, and that you would definitely
notice when biting into a burger?

~~~
ceejayoz
I use a welding brush. A tenth of the cost of a BBQ brush, much better made,
and the bristles are big enough I'd notice.

------
foobarian
I knew it! I was always terrified of those bristles and just don't clean the
grill. The coals do a fine job of cleaning it as it is, usually I just quickly
scrape it with BBQ tongs.

~~~
justinlardinois
I don't think cleaning a barbecue grill is about sanitation so much as
removing the built up, burnt crap. Heat will take care of the former; the
latter could insulate the grill (so your food doesn't cook as evenly) or give
an unpleasant flavor.

~~~
foobarian
It also depends on the type of grill. Many common gas grills have thick bars
with a grease channel, which would trap more gunk than thin rods common on
charcoal grills.

------
gamedna
My favorite grill grate cleaning tool is this grill scrubber:
[https://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Companion-Single-Scrubber-
Re...](https://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Companion-Single-Scrubber-
Refill/dp/B000QDA0W4/ref=pd_bxgy_86_img_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6H65Z77SRWWAVZSP0NRC)

You can replace the scrubber with any generic metal scrubbing pad and it works
fantastically.

------
agentgt
Slightly off topic but I'm just going to throw it out there. If you are
cooking with charcoal I highly recommend a Kamado style grill aka big green
egg (BGE). Once you get one of those you will never go back. It is extremely
efficient with charcoal.

There is one made by Char-Griller that is dirt cheap and light that I use year
round (another advantage of the kamado is it can be freezing out and you can
still grill fine).

------
groby_b
Heat grill for an hour. Pour a beer over it. (Shake & spray, because that's
more fun). Rub with newspaper or onion. Season with olive oil.

You're good to go.

~~~
justinlardinois
I doubt the inks used by newspapers are food safe. Besides, who still gets the
newspaper?

~~~
rosege
a free one gets delivered 3 times a week - pretty annoying actually!

~~~
awqrre
It's actually pretty hard to stop the delivery of those free ad newspapers
that they throw in your driveway (like the penny saver)... it took me about a
year to completely stop them (they kept restarting delivery after a few weeks)

------
euroclydon
Just use a putty knife to scrape off the grates. It takes a little time. If
you want it to go faster, grind a groove in the knife to fit a grill bar.

~~~
agentgt
I do that as well. The other thing is I have cast iron grates which seem to
not need as much cleaning as other grates.

------
hoodoof
I won't use pans with non stick surface coatings either.

Over time, the non stick coating wears away, but where did it go? It tends to
have gone away in the areas where the food goes.

Thus the non stick coating goes into your food.

I threw out all my non stick pans and pots and bought stainless steel and
never looked back.

DuPont has us convinced we need non stick coated kitchenware but stainless
steel is perfectly fine.

~~~
awqrre
at 350C, teflon starts to release toxic particles and gases [1]

1\. [http://swac.web.unc.edu/files/2015/07/Teflon-
infographic-102...](http://swac.web.unc.edu/files/2015/07/Teflon-
infographic-1024x667.jpeg)

------
pchristensen
From AmazingRibs.com
([http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyers_guide/grill_grate_cleaning...](http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_buyers_guide/grill_grate_cleaning.html))

"Be careful with bristle brushes, especially cheap brass bristle brushes.
Bristles fall out. Every year there are scores of sad news stories about
people eating meals with bristles hiding on them. The bristle gets stuck in
their throats or digestive systems, and repairs can get pretty ugly. Every so
often someone dies."

I bought this from his recommendation, and it has been good so far:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045UBBO0/tag=amazingribs-...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045UBBO0/tag=amazingribs
--20) Weber 18-Inch Bamboo Grill Brush. Still the easiest, and most effective
way to remove grease. Heat the grates and then brush. Simple. There are a
variety of brushes like this with rustproof brass bristles but the Weber is my
favorite because it is well built. Some have flat scrapers on the end as well
as the brush. I like this model because the C shaped scraper on the end.

~~~
ghaff
That's just basically his recommendation for a bristle brush though.

Clearly lots of people use these so it may indeed just make sense to buy a
good one and wipe down the grill after using or whatever. The problem is that
I don't think there are any great alternatives to using thin pieces of metal
to scrub hot grill in some way shape or form.

~~~
pyre
People have suggested a few in other threads.

~~~
ghaff
I'm not sure any fall into the a few swipes on a hot grill that brushes (or
some other variant like steel wool) fall into in terms of ease. Still, after
reading this, I'll definitely consider alternatives however small the risk.

~~~
amluto
Something like this:

[https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Steel-Barbecue-Grill-
Clean...](https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Steel-Barbecue-Grill-
Cleaner/dp/B003NU60OE)

works very well, possibly better than a metal brush. The main downside is that
they get gunked up quickly.

I have a Williams-Sonoma brush that has one of these on the other side.

------
jessaustin
It's amusing that CBC headline writers felt the need to use the adjective
"Canadian" here.

~~~
refurb
It's the inferiority complex that has plagued Canadians for centuries. Always
in the shadow of the US, Canadians will go to extreme measures to call out if
Canada played some role in a news story. Even something like this.

 _Before I get crapped on, I 'm a Canadian myself, so I have first hand
experience with this_

~~~
SuperPaintMan
That and the CBC has always had a nationalistic-liberal slant.

Gets especially sickening when we are involved in minor international politics
or troop deployment. Canada this, Canada that. I still hear people chirping
about the damn CanadaArm.

More stroking the ego than doing anything of note. (Edit: I am Canadian.)

------
stinos
We usually barbecue in the evening and when finished put the grill in the
grass, leave it there for a couple of nights. Because of the dew everything on
there gets soaking wet and becomes easy to remove. With, for instance, grass
or weeds. No brushes, no waste.

~~~
acchow
You clean your grill with grass? And the next time you use it, your food
doesn't taste like lawn?

------
SQL2219
I had insidious things and once I saw the bristles coming off I threw it out.

Direct from China. Buyers beware.

------
rosege
i feel guilty - i had a bbq a few weeks ago for a group of friends and cleaned
my bbq with one of these - although the wires seem thicker - ill have to check
when I get home - either way I think im not going to use it again - not worth
the risk!

------
cmdrfred
I cooked for nearly a decade. Every restaurant ive worked at had an old grill
brush (owners are cheap) with bristles falling off. Never eating a burger that
isn't done on a flat top (5 guys) or by my own hand again.

------
cafard
I wasn't happy with the warnings on the brush, but I used it. Then when it was
time to change the head, the cheap screws stripped, and I switched to abrasive
cleaner. They work pretty well.

------
mynameishere
Never BBQ'd anything. If I didn't know better, I'd get some heavy-duty lye-
based oven cleaner and burn off the gunk. Is that not a valid alternative to
physical removal?

~~~
peeters
It's not something you'd want to be doing every day before grilling. The usual
ritual for most people who grill would be to heat up the grill till it's at
cooking temperature, then scrape for 20 seconds with the brush just before
putting the food on.

------
dv_dt
I use a grill cleaning stone (sometimes called a grill pumice or brick
cleaner) that works better than the brushes and seems to be more durable/less
waste than using aluminium foil.

~~~
sehugg
I use that to get rid of the stuck food and a butterknife to knock off some
dangly bits. But a protective layer of carbon is a pretty nice cooking
surface, so I don't go overboard cleaning it.

~~~
dv_dt
Makes sense to me, if you don't press excessively hard, it's easy to leave
most of that carbon layer.

------
Pica_soO
Reminds me of my former boss in a bakery- he would get mad if somebody used
sponge iron to clean or would instantly empty stuff from opened metal
containers into the dough kneader.

------
Havoc
Had that happen to me. Fucking terrifying experience.

By some miracle it dislodged from my throat and I was able to spit it out. So
wasn't deep in the first place, but enough to rattle me.

------
exabrial
Leave it to the Canadians to ruin BBQ.

J/K, the real trick it to clean it after you're doing using it and not let the
solids cool. I use a foil ball most of the time.

~~~
mdip
That's how I've always done it - frankly, it never occurred to me to clean it
beforehand. The grill is already hot so I just turn it up, close the lid for a
few seconds, open it back up and scrape it to death.

I've never had this problem because when I'm done the surface has nothing on
it but metal.

That said, those bristle brushes are very hard on my non-stainless steel
grates and the coating is starting to chip off, so I'm replacing them this
year and had planned on switching to a wood scraper -- this article pretty
much sold me the rest of the way.

~~~
exabrial
Wood? have a link? I'm curious

------
instakill
I'm sorry if I'm late and ignorant but do people not chew? Surely if you chew
enough you'll detect a piece of metal in your mouth!

~~~
awqrre
Have you never swallowed a fish bone? it's probably a bit similar...

------
halite
Why not wash grills just like regular dishes? My grills come off and once I'm
done cooking, I rinse and put them in dishwasher.

------
anonymousDan
Couldn't they have some sort of instrument with a metal detector attached to
find things like that?

~~~
gruez
the metal detectors would have to be incredibly sensitive to pick up a single
bristle

~~~
riboflava
What about accidental removal by MRI?

~~~
homero
Is brass magnetic?

~~~
snuxoll
A quick google says that brass is a non-ferrous metal.

------
jedanbik
I like to ball up aluminium foil, and scrape the grill with that. Pretty hard
not to see it.

------
foxfired
When I go to Korean BBQ with my colleagues, we use the chopped onion to clean
the grill.

------
hoodoof
The other thing is that burnt food is carcinogenic. LOTS of people eat burned
BBQ food.

------
rednerrus
Take a piece of aluminum foil and ball it up and use that to clean your grill.

------
emodendroket
Thank you for creating a new anxiety for me.

------
Magi604
I was inspecting my portable bbq the other day and I noted that the cleaning
bristle I keep with it was looking kind of worn out. Time to throw it out!

------
bifrost
Well thats sortof terrifying. Very squicky.

------
icantdrive55
I hate to add to the wire brush worry, but it's not just BBQ.

So many resturants use wire brushes.

The last burrito I had was a few months ago. It had piece of wire in it. I
kept the wire for a few days, and thought about it. The wire was not from a
brush. I think it was old copper telephone wire. It that might have fell onto
the grill from the ceiling, or wall?

Anyways, I haven't had a burrito since that instance. And tonight, I just got
the visual of them cleaning the grill with a big, old wire brush--with gusto.
Now I think about it, they had all types of black brushes near the grill.

Those grills are just large pieces of steel, without holes, or spaces. If
loose wire isn't caught by the cook it just gets mixed in with the of steak,
chicken, whatever.

(They make small metal detectors. My watch parts supplier is always
advertising them. They claim they will find watch parts on the ground. I
wonder if they could detect those small bristles?)

~~~
Grangar
Wow, I'm feeling pretty paranoid now.

~~~
tartuffe78
Don't worry too much about this, there are a dozen other things you don't know
about that get close to killing you every day ;)

~~~
softawre
You make me smile. The sort of worried, am I going to die today smile.

------
aaron695
> said the number of cases across Canada isn't tracked.

We are Neanderthals sometimes.

(I'd like to think it was because of privacy reasons)

~~~
massel
It's because each province maintains their own health care data and many of
them refuse to share anything with the others - whether from a paranoid
privacy standpoint or a bureaucratic inability to make it happen.

~~~
vacri
So, my hometown in Melbourne has a reasonably well-known children's hospital,
the Royal Children's Hospital. A colleague of mine tried to get an appointment
for his kid there, and they told him to apply _by fax_ (who even has a fax
anymore?). And even after he supplied all the forms _by fax_ , they still
asked him to fax them in the correct order. He ended up going somewhere else.

The bureaucracy there comes straight from the consultant doctors. Half a
decade ago, an ex-colleague of mine worked in QA there, and there was nothing
he could do. Any suggestion he would make would require X or Y department to
change procedure or software (some departments couldn't even talk to each
other electronically). The departmental heads had their preferred vendors,
with their preferred sales reps, with their preferred kickbacks. As soon as
you'd float a plan to improve efficiency and intercommunication, the relevant
department head would defend their turf with the statement: "If you do this,
children will die". Even for something as non-medical as simple appointment
software. There is nothing you can say to that, because the department head is
the designated expert for X or Y, so they have the final say.

Another meeting he was at showed how insular the place was. A comment was made
by one departmental head, and one of the old guard (30 years or so) dismissed
him as "we don't do that here. if you'd been here any length of time, you'd
know that". The reply was "I've been here for 17 years...".

The RCH is a particularly bad example of this, but it's illustrative of
politics. There is so much politics and turf warfare in medicine, some
hospitals worse than others, that homogenising a system _cannot_ happen unless
it is a specific priority driven from the top, as only the top has the
authority to tell the lieutenants to "just fucking do it". It's not paranoia
or bureaucracy that creates these silos - it's politics and nest-feathering.

------
Kenji
Wow! We've been using this kind of brush for decades. I guess we're lucky that
nothing happened. I think, though, with proper brushes, none of the bristles
come off.

~~~
colejohnson66
I'd wager it's almost certainly the extremely cheap ones that are prone to
this.

------
MaxfordAndSons
I didn't know Canada was so big on barbecue.

------
nefitty
Meat is murder, in more ways than one.

------
dkarapetyan
Does anyone really need further evidence of "intelligent design"?

