Whenever you buy a new small appliance, unplug it and buy a new plug for it. Then throw away the original plug.

In the UK, there are mandatory safety tests for plugs. It's illegal to sell an appliance without one. But, you can sell a plug individually without any safety testing. So, to get around the laws, manufacturers just don't bother with safety testing. It's illegal for the government to shut companies down for this because they are technically following the laws, but that doesn't stop people from dying.<br><br>A few years ago, I saw a BBC Watchdog investigation (similar to 20/20 in the US or Today Tonight in Australia) about people's plugs catching fire. They tested them and found that, out of the 10 plugs they tested, 9 of them were dangerous. They went on to test over 100 and found that only one manufacturer was producing safe plugs, and only one other manufacturer was producing plugs that were "safe enough". Everything else was crap. <br><br>This was all about two years ago, and I'm sure that this is still a problem today. <br><br>So, whenever you buy an appliance, unplug it and throw it away. Then go buy a new plug from a manufacturer that you trust.