Jul 10, 2012. /Lesprom Network/.Pulp mills in the province, including Harmac in Nanaimo, will be targeted for safety inspections this summer as part of the ongoing inspection of all wood mills in B.C. after recent explosions that took four lives at two Interior facilities. WorkSafeBC announced its decision this week to expand inspections to pulp mills, as well as the panel and wood pellet plants in B.C., because of their high risk of combustible dust explosion due to large amounts of dust produced or handled in these facilities, as Nanaimo Daily News reported. The workplace safety agency already ordered the cleanup of all of the province's sawmills in April, including the two Western Forest Products' two sawmills in Nanaimo, after two deadly explosions in northern B.C. earlier this year killed four workers and injured dozens of others. Levi Sampson, president of the Harmac pulp mill, said he has yet to be informed as to when inspectors from WorkSafeBC will visit the mill, but Harmac has already increased measures to reduce the amount of wood dust as a result of the tragedies. "We're making sure our work areas are thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis," Sampson said. "As well as the dust, there's a lot of dangerous moving parts in mills so, as far as I'm concerned, we can never have enough safety measures in place." WorkSafeBC plans to have the first round of inspections of the 280 newly targeted plants complete by late August. The inspections will focus on dust cleanup, ventilation and dust control issues. In a first-round blitz of sawmills in early May, at least 11 B.C. Interior sawmills were determined to have hazardous levels of wood dust a week after WorkSafeBC issued cleanup orders. The cleanup order to 173 sawmills was issued just one day after two workers were killed in an explosion and fire at Lakeland Mills in Prince George on April 23. An explosion and fire at Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake on Jan. 19 also killed two workers. Safety regulators and industry representatives have not directly linked the two deadly sawmill explosions to wood dust, but dry wood dust from beetle-killed pine is being investigated as a factor in both. Officials from WorkSafeBC inspected Western Forest Products' two sawmills in Nanaimo in May as part of the ongoing inspection process, with the results still pending. WFP had already decided to be proactive after the two tragedies, and is one of 12 of the province's major sawmill operators that agreed to collaborate to improve safety in response to the explosions. WFP spokeswoman Mackenzie Leine said WFP's mills have implemented new procedures around reducing the levels of combustible sawdust at work sites.