[johnthedebs]

This failed on me recently (a couple weeks ago) and I was very surprised when it happened. It was a US 10-watt(?) adapter that came with a 3rd-gen iPad I bought a while back.

The adapter is two pieces that fit together (like Apple's macbook adapters), and the piece that inserts into the outlet broke into two pieces when I tried pulling it out one day. The way it split, half was stuck in the wall and half was still connected to the little power brick in my hand. The piece that was still in the outlet had two bits of exposed metal that were clearly just extensions of the prongs in the socket. I removed it very carefully realizing what would happen if I touched the bits of metal and threw it out.

That said, it looks like they don't list the US as affected on that page :-/.

[caf]

I've never understood why it seems to be popular for US wall sockets not to have switches.

[tedmiston]

I just returned from Australia and New Zealand where every outlet has a built-in power switch. I would really like to have them in the states too.

I can't seem to find a real reason why we don't. Perhaps the usage cost of electricity is less expensive in the U.S., or it's something Americans are just less conscientious about.

There is a lot of speculative discussion in this thread http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/why-dont-us-outlets-have-bui....

[digi_owl]

Same thing happened in Norway a while back, but to a school kid that seemed to have impulsively reached for the part that was lodged in the socket. Best i could tell the kid survived.

[hartator]

Yes, I wonder why the US is not listed as well. Maybe it's different issues?