This Study Will Make You Never Want to Clean Your Grill Again

There are all sorts of studies out there. Some spend countless hours detailing what is already painfully obvious. Other delve into a subject so esoteric, the study's authors are likely the only ones who care. But a study that is both spectacularly unwarranted because it seems to state the obvious and reports on the threat of horrific bodily harm all at once? Now that's a study worth writing about.

A new study from the University of Missouri School of Medicine describes a seasonal injury that has sent almost 1,700 people to emergency rooms since 2002. The newfangled danger? The inadvertent eating of wire bristles from the brushes that are used to clean grills.

You may think you are doing good by cleaning your grill, but you may actually be endangering yourself and others, the study says. Loose bristles from these brushes easily fall off and end up in food. If and when consumed, the spiky bristles lead to injuries of the mouth, throat, and tonsils. Forget about fish bones—Summer '16 is all about the wire bristle violently lodged in your bleeding throat.

Researchers say the way to avoid injury is to carefully inspect grills after cleaning with a brush—or just avoid using those brushes at all.

This epidemic of swallowed bristles is little-known; even doctors may not know to look for it. David Chang, M.D., associate professor of otolaryngology at the MU School of Medicine, says, "If doctors are unaware that this problem exists, they may not order the appropriate tests or capture the correct patient history to reach the right diagnosis."

The study looked at consumer injury databases and found 1,698 injuries related to wire brushes used to clean grills since 2002. Injuries to oral cavities, throats, and tonsils were most typical.

But things can get really, really bad if you swallow a wire bristle: "If the bristle passes through those regions without lodging itself, it could get stuck further downstream in places like the esophagus, stomach, or the intestine. The biggest worry is that it will lodge into those areas and get stuck in the wall of the intestine. The bristles could migrate out of the intestine and cause further internal damage."

Leaving your grill dirty now sounds like a decent and defensible option, given the dangers inherent in grill cleaning. Whether or not the subject warranted an entire study… that's up to you.