[ben]

A few years ago I had to claim for some defective audio headset leads from the manufacturers. These were a kind of soft rubber coating which had disintegrated and fallen off the core wires after only a year´s storage. I have since seen this happen on a Nokia phone charger lead.I suspect the material would have decomposed anyway, but I think they were stored in or near some plastic boxes.

I also once changed the captive speaker wire on a small Philips portable record player after the original had gone hard and brittle. A couple of months later, I found the new cable had melted its way into the plastic deckplate of the player!