New Grilling Danger Once the weather gets warm, the air is filled with the smell of barbecued foods in suburban backyards everywhere. A hearty cookout is practically a rite of passage on summer evenings. And whatever you prefer to grill, be it burgers, chicken, shrimp, vegetables, or anything else on the barbecue, just make sure you are not serving a side of grill brush wires with it. That’s right, it turns out that some of us are actually ingesting the bristle wires from the brushes that we use for cleaning grill grates. According to new information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been numerous hospital visits for both adults and children with injuries from swallowing these wires along with food.1 Kearney, Christine. "People Are Ingesting Grill Brush Wires Says CDC." Medical News Today. In all of the cases, some form of pain began shortly after eating barbecued food… The wire bristles were responsible for a number of different types of injuries. Some were found to have perforated tissue in the throat, producing pain upon swallowing and necessitating an emergency room visit. Others were even more acute, such as serious damage taking place within the gastrointestinal tract. In these cases, emergency surgery was required to repair the organs and prevent peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdomen caused by leaking blood or fluids.2 "GI Perforations." EndoNurse. Even if doctors order a CT scan of the abdominal region to determine the source of the pain, it may be difficult to see the wire bits in typical imaging. In other words, you might want to play it safe and avoid cleaning your grill with this sort of brush to eliminate a small but potentially very dangerous hazard. At the very least, you might want to wipe your grill down with a damp paper towel after wire brushing it. Or consider alternative methods to get those grill grates clean.