More safety inspectors for troubled WA mines The WA Government has appointed seven new safety inspectors for the WA mining industry. MORE safety inspectors will be hired to police the mining industry in WA. The announcement by the WA Government comes after a campaign by The Sunday Times exposing serious environmental and health and safety breaches by mining companies and the failure of government agencies to regulate them. Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion this morning said he had appointed seven new specialist safety inspectors. It takes the number of Department of Mines and Petroleum inspectors to 107, including 63 mines safety inspectors, 16 petroleum safety assessors and risk analysts, and 28 dangerous goods officers. The move comes after it was revealed mining companies in WA have so much clout that even our top environment defender is powerless to rein them in when they're caught polluting in a big way. The Sunday Times' investigation found: Nearly three WA mine sites a week are being shut down over safety breaches that could kill or seriously injure a worker. WA mine sites are claiming almost three times more lives than any other state in Australia, according to the latest figures from Safe Work Australia. Samples and video evidence filmed by a whistleblower alleged that Barrick Gold contaminated groundwater in the Goldfields with arsenic at its Kanowna Belle mine site. Residents claim they're suffering asthma and breathing difficulties after the operators of Kalgoorlie's Super Pit failed to stop toxin-rich dust blowing over homes. A plant called the Gidji Roaster which processes Super Pit ore and is one of the world's worst mercury polluters is still allowed to operate despite former Department of Environment director-general Keiran McNamara saying its mercury and sulphur dioxide emissions were so great the plant ``would not be allowed in most other Australian states or other developed countries. In documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws, Mr McNamara called for a cap on emissions, more stations for air monitoring, a 1km exclusion zone and better smokestack filtering at the Gidji Roaster, run by operator KCGM. But none of his recommendations, which he made in a confidential submission in 2010 to the Environmental Protection Agency, was ever adopted. Meanwhile, a former Department of Mines and Petroleum inspector said the state's 10,000 underground miners are being put at risk by breathing in a cancer-causing chemical known as diesel particulate that could ``eclipse asbestos" as an industrial killer. While the department has known of the dangers of diesel particulate for years, it is still drafting mine site guidelines for the carcinogen. Mr Marmion said there had not been a death on a WA mine site in 2012 and he hoped the improving safety record would be repeated in 2013. Read the previous stories about the dark side of WA's mining boom at: Mining-boom-linked-to-pollution-sickness WA-mines-three-times-as-deadly-as-any-other-state Mine-sites-close-over-safety-fears