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Barbecuing Dangers

By Bill Kellogg, Teacher Educator Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

It seems like most every agriculture department is involved in BBQ activities. For many, barbecuing is a very profitable fund raising activity that sustains many FFA activities and departmental projects.

Some departments have extensive BBQ trailers, while others have smaller portable and/or stationary units. Have you ever given consideration as to how best to clean your BBQ grills? If not, consider this article.

An Ag department's (whose name will remain nameless at the request of the teacher) BBQ trailer was recently borrowed by their local city fire department. After their event, the fire department, thinking they were doing the Ag department a favor, used a steel wire brush to thoroughly clean the grill. Upon return of the BBQ trailer to the high school, the trailer was used immediately by three different student organizations over a three-day period. During one of those activities, a student eating a hamburger cooked on the grill, ingested three separate steel wires that had broken off the wire brush used to clean the grill. Later the student was transferred to Stanford University Medical Center to have the wires in her throat surgically removed by a specialist, so as to not cause permanent damage to her vocal cords. As you might think, a lawsuit was filed against the school district alleging negligence in the care of the BBQ.

It is not uncommon for wires to come off wire brushes while cleaning BBQ grills. In fact, after hearing this story, I went home and cleaned my home grill with a wire brush. To my amazement, I discovered numerous steel wires remaining on grill when I was finished!

What is the best method to clean BBQ grills? According to Weber-Stephen Products, manufacture of the famous Weber grills, they recommend that grills be cleaned with warm soapy water and a soapy SOS pad. After cleaning, rinse well with water. For smaller and mid-sized BBQs this procedures might work very well. Many professional BBQers take great pride in their equipment and elect to thoroughly clean between BBQ events. An argument could be made for removable grills. These types of grills have the advantage of being able to be cleaned the best.

If it is not possible to remove the grill from the BBQ, then the best way to clean a BBQ grill would be to high-pressure wash the grill after us. Sprinkling a product like Ajax cleanser (or other degreasing compound) over the grill should follow this step. Allow the cleaner to dissolve the grease, then wash again with a high-pressure washer. Most professional BBQers will then "season" the grill before cooking a product by heating fat over the grills to prevent the food from sticking to the grills.

Soft brass-bristle brushes designed for cleaning BBQ grills are the brushes of choice for cleaning BBQs. Even when these brushes are used, care should be taken to make certain any broken bristles are removed from the grill. This can by done with a high-pressure water nozzle. Steel wire brushes, like the kind used in welding, are not recommended to clean BBQ grills, as the wires break and are left on the grill surface.

Some schools that loan out their BBQ trailers have the borrowers complete "Hold-Harmless" agreements and have them agree to follow specific procedures for the use and care of the BBQ. If you would like copies of these forms and procedures, feel free to contact Bill Kellogg.

Hopefully this article will cause you to take notice of your cleaning procedures and avoid problems like what happened to the student in the story mentioned above. Special thanks are extended to those of you who suggest topics for these safety-related articles.

If you have an area of safety you would like addressed in this column, send Bill Kellogg an e-mail note or call him at (805) 756-2873. He will discuss questions or concerns. Notes can be addressed to bkellogg@calpoly.edu.

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