Metal barbecue brush poses danger: Health Canada data

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Do you clean your barbecue with one of those stiff metal brushes?

You might want to rethink that.

New data from Health Canada states that the metal bristles from these brushes pose a health risk — they can come off the brush and stay on the grill, winding up in your food and potentially harming your digestive tract or esophagus.

Data from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) surveillance system show 38 cases of injury related to barbecue brush bristle ingestion (or inhalation) in Canada between 2011 and 2022.

For the first five years of that data, there was usually only one case per annum; then there was a jump to three cases in 2016 and there have been several incidents a year thereafter.

Of those 38, more than a third (36.8%) needed hospitalization.

Among the hospitalized was Prince Edward Islander Kevin Gallant, who discovered that the stomach pain he’d endured for 18 months was caused by a barbecue bristle stuck in his small intestine.

When the pain got bad enough to seek medical care, he was told by doctors about the metal bristle and how it was slowly piercing through the gut wall.

Gallant needed immediate surgery.

A recent National Post story told of Gallant’s medical journey, which included the removal of part of his intestine.

“They said it was fortunate that they got that out of me because if it would have finished going through the intestinal wall, it would have just travelled through major organs until it pierced something that probably would have just killed you,” Gallant told the National Post.

A 2017 Health Canada paper elaborates: “Once ingested, these thin, sharp wire bristles have perforated or embedded along the aerodigestive and gastrointestinal tract, including at sites such as the tongue, pharynx, small intestine/bowel, and colon.”

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These injuries happen all year long, not just in summer, and appear to affect men and women equally.

But Health Canada writes that the extent of the problem is actually unknown, since some who have ingested a wire bristle may have sought medical help somewhere other than an emergency room, or may have not have needed medical care.

This is not a new problem. To make the brushes safer to use, voluntary safety standards for barbecue brushes were created in 2019 — but manufacturers don’t have to abide by those standards.

A Health Canada spokesperson quoted by the National Post advised regular inspection of these barbecue brushes and of the grill, and suggested buying a new brush every season.