Two recent cases of OSHA enforcement illustrate how workplace violence can pose a threat to workers in vastly different industries. Corizon Health Inc., which provides medical, dental and psychiatric services to inmates at the Rikers Island correctional facility in New York City, was cited by OSHA for knowingly failing to protect its employees adequately against workplace violence and assault.

Home Depot USA Inc. has been cited for six, including two repeat, one willful and three serious safety violations, at its home improvement store on North Kimball Avenue in Chicago. The repeat and willful violations involved lack of training and maintenance for powered industrial vehicles.

Pablo Lopez of Norcross has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for three repeat and one serious safety violation following inspections at two work sites in Milton and Smyrna where employees were performing roofing work without fall protection.

Following the death of a truck driver at Midwest Farmers Cooperative's grain handling facility in Tecumseh, OSHA has cited the company for 12 serious safety violations.

OSHA has proposed more than $70,000 in fines for Hyde Park, Mass. contractor that exposed its workers to possible electrocution from working close to energized power lines at a Cambridge work site where required safeguards were not used.

OSHA has proposed $53,000 in fines for 11 serious violations against a New York manufacturer that exposed its workers to multiple hazards at its Fonda, NY facility.

United Airlines Inc. has exposed ground operation workers at the Newark airport to hazardous conditions, prompting OSHA to issue 16 citations and propose penalties of $101,300. The safety violations were found during a January 2014 inspection that is part of an OSHA effort to focus on workplaces with high rates of injuries and illness.

"The cost of providing fall prevention equipment is nominal compared with the senseless loss of life.” Casey Perkins, OSHA's area director in Austin, made that comment in reference to an accident at a condo construction site in Canyon Lake, Texas in which a worker fell 29 feet to his death.

A company whose workers were “free climbing” – climbing without safety lines has earned citations from OSHA for one willful and eight serious safety violations. Proposed penalties total $52,500.