It's been a great year for SafetyXChange. In 2006, we held our first safety industry awards, the Saxcies™, and then launched a new look. We also continued to add new members and new contributors to our community. Here's a quick look at just 12 of the best articles from this year's Best Practices Weekly published every Tuesday. (Remember that all of our articles are archived on the site. The Best Practices articles can be found here.)

1. Carelessness with passwords is one of the main reasons so many people get burned by identity theft. Identity Theft: A Dozen Ways to Prevent It, Part 2 of 2, by Robert Siciliano.
2. There are three main concerns when developing a disaster plan: response, recovery and restoration. But before you even begin drafting the plan, there are two things you need to do first. Preparing for Disaster: How to Create a Readiness Plan, Part 1, by Anthony Rankin.
3. Getting employees to report near misses is crucial. But it's not easy. Here are more than a dozen ideas. Near Misses: Getting Your Employees to Report Them, by SafetyXChange members.
4. For lift trucks to be a cost-effective tool for your business, you need to look at the whole picture and check the operating environment, the operator competency and the lift truck maintenance. Lift Trucks: A General Safety Guide, by Alec Dewdney.
5. Forget bird flu. The real pandemic is Own Worst Enemy Syndrome - OWES. This insidious malady that exists in many North American workplaces results in countless lost workdays, untold pain and suffering, as well as embarrassment. The OWES Pandemic: One Company's Approach, by John Bruce.
6. Workers have a tendency to view golf carts as toys and ride around on them without worrying about the danger. Golf Carts: How to Keep Them on a Safe Course, by Catherine Jones.
7. Employees who wear contacts in industrial environments must understand the risks and potential hazards involved. Contact Lenses and the Workplace: Basic Safety Information You Need to Know, Part 1 of 4, by Duane Perkinson.
8. A pallet jack may not be the most hazardous piece of equipment in your workplace. But its simple appearance can be dangerously deceiving. Pallet Jacks: How to Prevent Them From Causing Injury, by Lyonel Doherty.
9. No amount of training or experience can prepare you for the death of a co-worker. When the Unthinkable Happens: Disaster Response Plans and Workplace Fatalities, Part 1 of 2, by John Riehs.
10. Commercial oven cleaners containing non-methane hydrocarbons (which can cause cancer) can drastically affect your home's indoor air quality in just 90 minutes. The Hawk's Eye View: Weird Safety Tips for the Home, by Richard Hawk.
11. To protect workers who work alone you need to assess the risks isolated workers face and establish safe work procedures. You should also teach workers how to assess hazards themselves. Working Alone: Helping Workers Handle the Hazards of Isolation, by Carola Hicks.
12. When sick employees show up for work, they're not only less productive, they expose co-workers, effectively reducing the company's overall productivity. They also jeopardize their own safety and that of everyone around them. Defeating Presenteeism: How to Get Sick Workers to Just Stay Home, by Kenneth S. Weinberg.

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