Apple launches probe after Chinese woman, 23, dies 'from massive electric shock while answering her

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Daily Mail

Apple launches probe after Chinese woman, 23, dies 'from massive electric shock while answering her iPhone 5'

A bride-to-be has died after being electrocuted while answering her iPhone 5 in China, it has been reported.

Ma Ailun, a former flight attendant with China Southern Airlines, allegedly suffered a massive electric shock when she picked up her ringing smartphone while it charged.

The 23-year-old, who was planning her wedding on August 8, was rushed to hospital near her home in Xinjiang but medics were unable to revive her.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2363956/Apple-launches-probe-Chinese-air-stewardess-23-dies-massive-electric-shock-answering-iPhone-5.html#ixzz2Z6nU3Wdv


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2363956/Apple-launches-probe-Chinese-air-stewardess-23-dies-massive-electric-shock-answering-iPhone-5.html

[tridim]

1. As much as I despise Apple, this can't be true...

Batteries can explode, but where would a shock come from? Certainly not a high capacity capacitor in a tiny phone.

Lightning maybe?

[DaveJ]

4. It was plugged into the wall charger at the time

I'm not sure what safety mechanisms are supposed to protected people from a bad transformer incident. They seem so cheap in the first place. I have always been reluctant to put a phone up to my face while it was connected to an electrical outlet. Surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Of course corporations skimp on quality, do the math and figure a few lawsuits cost less than a few lives.

[tridim]

5. I've been shocked by 110v many times and it doesn't kill.

Maybe China is 220v? If so, there's your problem.

[DaveJ]

7. Me too, I'm big though.

She was petite and it was presumably/possibly up to her face (near her brain). Agreed though household voltage is normally not fatal.

Plus I looked it up and it says China uses 220.

[Itchinjim]

9. Volts/Amps, AC/DC

Voltage doesn't kill you. amperage does. Less than half an amp is enough to kill, however a person could easily take 110/220 DC. Might not be pleasant, but it won't kill you.As for you getting shocked by 110 AC and surviving, you got lucky that's all. Lots of amps there that didn't travel to ground through your heart.
.

[dipsydoodle]

12. China is on 22ov / 50 cycle ac

and 50 cycle is more dangerous than 60 cycle anyway..

[jonthebru]

21. volts aren's what kills,

its the current. And the 220v standard uses less current, it is said to be safer. In these case I don't see how the wall charger could pass enough current to kill someone. The wire would melt for one thing.
There is some information we don know.

[truthisfreedom]

33. I'm an electrical engineer and while your first statement is correct,

Your interpretation of what it means is not. I assume two things: there was a short in the charger that brought line voltage to her phone and she was somehow grounded to proved a path through her body. Bolts push the current, higher volts push higher current, 220 is much more dangerous than 110.

[One_Life_To_Give]

18. Underwriters Laboratories help protect the US consumer

Most US retailers don't want to accept the liability of carrying an electical product that hasn't been approved by a NRTL (Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory) to a ANSI/UL Standard. In the case of a "Wall Wart" power supply UL1310.

There a plenty of people who will try and counterfit a NRTL approval. But looking for the mark on your electrical products is still your best defense against being exposed to a potentially dangerously constructed product.

[KurtNYC]

2. Apple's answer to the Droid -- the iDrone n/t

[Puzzler]

3. Very strange...

... (and of course tragic).

I'm no electrical expert, but the cord going into the iPhone 5 (or any phone for that matter) is no way near full house voltage (110/220), but around 12 volts or less. My iPhone 5 cord plugs into a small transformer (as do all phones).

If this story is accurate, then it sounds like a problem with the plug/transformer unit. However, if this is the case you'd expect a lot of fried iPhones (as well as dead users). I'm sure the electronics of a smartphone could not tolerate anything near full house voltage.

[hlthe2b]

6. The thing was plugged in to their electrical outlet.... I'm betting it all there was a problem with

the outlet, the wiring, the transformer supplying the 220 v current.

I've lived/worked in enough areas of the world where the electrical system is at best undependable and worst, so full of shortcuts to be dangerous, that to blame the iphone does not make even minimal sense. I'm no electrician, but I'm not a gullible fool, either.

[seltzerwater]

8. I put my money on aftermarket cable/ac adaptor

All the Chinese made ones I have bought for my laptops have run very hot, so hot you cant touch them while they are charging.
And believe me, I'm no Apple Fanboy, but this is a QC problem of the AC adapter.

[DaveJ]

11. Apple will use this that their advantage either way

They immensely profit from boasting about all the 3rd party accessories available.

If the power surge happened when pressing the answer call button on their phone, it could be their fault from a technical perspective, as they might have thought about how a shift in current might effect a charger.

[greiner3]

23. "...all the 3rd party accessories available."

Ya think the accessories are also 'Made in China', just as the IPhone at Foxcon?

[bananas]

14. "Sister says Ma bought hers from Apple store, was using original charger" nt

[NewJeffCT]

10. I'm not a fan of Apple products at all

but, I'm guessing it's an issue with the plug itself or there was some sort of power surge from the transformer or something like that. Xinjiang Province is in the poorer western part of China, so I'm guessing the infrastructure there is not as good as the more modernized eastern China.

[intaglio]

13. Apple, like most modern phones charge on USB voltage 5v

The big danger is if US based charger (110 step down transformer) is used in Europe/China with their 220 volt system - then there is a danger that, if the internal fuse fails to break the current the transformer will melt down and you end up with a phone connected directly to the mains.

I also note she was an ex-flight attendant ...

[dipsydoodle]

16. As far as I'm aware

Apple chargers are universal 110v/220v.

[intaglio]

29. Difficult

Certainly the one I have here is rated only as 230 -> 5

There are dual input voltage chargers with auto switching but, personally, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them becaue if the sensing circuit goes down you're in a lot of trouble.

[dipsydoodle]

30. All of my chargers bought in the UK work just fine in the US

and they are all manufacturer supplied with phones and cameras whatever.

[bananas]

15. more info at cnn

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/15/apple-iphone-electrocuted-charging/

<snip>

Ms. Ma's iPhone 5, according to her family, was purchased in December and was still under warranty. The family told @Stewardess network that she had left a bath to answer a call.

Over the years, there have been other reports of people being electrocuted while handling a charging cellphone. But these reports are extremely rare and they seem to always come out of India.

About.com's Urban Legends site labels "partly true/overblown" a pair of 2004 reports that a young Indian man died answering a call while his "instrument was still connected to the mains."

"Assuming the report was accurate," the writer states, "it's fair to conclude that either the phone or the charger was defective, given that 1) I could find no other reports of people being electrocuted while using a charging cell phone, 2) under normal circumstances the current flowing into a charging cell phone ought not to be strong enough to kill anyone, and 3) neither manufacturers nor consumer agencies warn customers against using mobile phones while they are being charged."

A 2011 report, also out of India, attributes the electrocution of a 25-year-old man to the cheap, Chinese-made smartphone knock-off that he answered while it was still charging.

According to Ma Ailun's family, she was using genuine Apple parts. The device and its charger were reportedly handed over to the police.

Experts interviewed for a Yahoo.cn report offered several alternative explanations for Ms. Ma's electrocution:
High temperatures -- Third-party chargers can get too hot, especially in summer, leading to instability.
Short circuit -- A frayed charging cable or exposed metal threads could, in theory, cause a shock strong enough to kill.
Susceptibility -- Some individuals are more susceptible to electrocution than others.
Transient voltage -- If there were high-voltage wires close to Ma's home, one expert said, they could cause a transient voltage spike -- although the odds are against it.

Apple PR, having learned the hard way that its usual code of silence doesn't fly in China, broke tradition and issued a response to the South China Morning Post:

<snip>

[uncle ray]

17. well, dripping wet from the bath would certainly be a factor.

she was probably well grounded, making any shock more likely to be deadly. if she was wet and picked up a charging phone, it's possible there was nothing wrong with the phone or charger.

[bhikkhu]

20. The cord coming from the charger only carries 5 volts

...so there would be no danger whatsoever unless the charger were faulty. Even there, its a very unusual thing, as any charger I've ever had problems with has stopped transmitting current entirely, not transmitted full wall current.

[L0oniX]

19. I am an electronics tech ...done my share of design engineering. I'm calling bullshit!

[turbo_satan]

22. Speaking as a product design engineer...

... this can happen. If I were involved in the forensic examination, my first suspect would be an uncertified charger. Many of the aftermarket accessory-chargers are designed on the cheap and don't have regulatory approval because that's very expensive to do. Believe it or not, it doesn't take much current to stop a heart. At mains voltage, it only takes a a few tens of milliamps to cause ventricular fibrillation -- certainly within the means of a mains-connected switch-mode AC/DC converter with small-gauge wiring on the secondary side. I'm not saying it's normal, mind you, but improper shielding or grounding could cause this, accidental coupling from mains to chassis could cause this, accidentally coupling from primary to secondary could cause this (say, a failed gate-drive optocoupler or an uncertified transformer), any number of other failure modes could have caused this. This is why regulatory approval is crucial for anything that plugs into mains outlets.

[dipsydoodle]

26. It does say everything came from the Apple shop.

.

[olddots]

24. me too

bull shit

[Lee-Lee]

25. I have used my share of sync cables to the point where they are falling apart

And I am no engineer, but could those tiny wires inside carry enough electricity for a "massive" electrical shock?

[kestrel91316]

27. I think she had previously dropped it and it suffered a crack that allowed a short.

I had a set of electric clippers here at the clinic that somebody dropped and after that, when you'd use them, you could feel a little electric current in your hand.

Into the trash they went.

[Sunlei]

28. tragic. It depends on where the shock travels in the body. It can stop the heart.

[quadrature]

31. charger had an 'isolation transformer'?

(not sure about now,
but in times past)

the wall wart should have
a transformer that has the 'AC mains' winding
completely DC unconnected to anything
else.

[FreeState]

32. UPDATE: 'Fake' iPhone charger cited in electrocution death probe

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1283818/woman-electrocuted-while-answering-iphone-may-have-been-using-fake

A woman killed by an electric shock while using her iPhone may have been using a non-Apple-made battery charger at the time of her death, Chinese state media reported.

The victim, 23-year-old Ma Ailun, had been using what appeared to be an unauthorised iPhone 4 charger, CCTV reported on Tuesday. According to Xiang Ligang, a telecommunications expert interviewed by CCTV, the charger Ma had been using may have been a "knockoff"' - a fake.

“Knockoff chargers sometimes cut corners,” Xiang said. “The quality of the capacitor and circuit protector may not be good, and this may lead to the capacitor breaking down and sending 220 volts of electricity directly into the cell phone battery.”

Ma, a flight attendant with China Southern Airlines, had been charging her iPhone 4 on July 11 in her home in Xinjiang. She had been electrocuted after picking it up to answer a call. Earlier reports had said she had been using an iPhone 5 at the time, but CCTV investigations confirmed that the exterior of the device was a stainless steel iPhone 4 - not the aluminum iPhone 5.