Design flaw in the MacBook MagSafe power cord attachment?

I kept having increasing trouble attaching the MagSafe ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe ) connector. I thought for a while that bits were breaking off inside of it. However, it turns out that it is attracting iron filings/other tiny metal bits into the female part of the connector (on the macbook side of the connection). I'm not sure how to easily clean this out. Any info out there on how to clean it out or whether Apple is going with a different adapter in the future? It seemed neat at first...