from www.latimes.com- Porn actors and actresses Tuesday protested the possible strengthening of rules requiring condom use in adult movies at a California occupational health and safety hearing in downtown Los Angeles.
Performers said they understood the risks of not using condoms, but believe current industry practices, which involve screening for some sexually transmitted diseases monthly, were enough to protect them.
"There is no way to make the industry risk-free. Making things safer does not make it safe," said a porn actor whose stage name is Jeremy Steele.
"If you're worried or paranoid, you should not be in this industry."
"As someone who is still working on the camera myself, I don't feel any safer with condoms," actress Nina Hartley [pictured] said.
State officials said Tuesday that California occupational safety and health rules already require condoms to be used on porn sets, citing rules that protect against employee exposure to "bloodborne pathogens," which include bodily fluids.
"People just need to understand what we're talking about," said Deborah Gold, a senior safety engineer with the state Occupational Safety and Health Division.
"You can use the saw without a guard, and cut off that arm" as a private individual, Gold said. "But when you come into an occupational arena, there are rules that are going to govern the risks you can take."
But state requirements and reality are different matters, and Los Angeles County public health officials said Tuesday that condom use needs to be enforced on porn sets. According to the county, since 2004, at least eight people were employed in the adult film industry at the time of their HIV diagnoses. Four of those people are confirmed to have been infected during an adult film production.
The annual prevalence rate of chlamydia and gonorrhea among adult film performers is higher compared to L.A. County residents ages 18 through 29, county health officials said.
The additional regulations being considered by Cal/OSHA would be written specifically for the porn industry, similar to how the agency composed rules mandating that employees working on the edge of a tall building are required to wear a harness or be protected from falls by a guardrail, said Amy Martin, chief counsel of Cal/OSHA.
Martin said Cal/OSHA investigates every complaint they receive about porn sets where condoms are not used and has issued citations and fines in the past.
Nonetheless, most heterosexual porn shoots are done without condoms.
No decision was made at the meeting Tuesday. Another hearing is scheduled for later this year in San Francisco.
LOS ANGELES - California’s of Department Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) convened its first meeting of an Advisory Panel to explore strengthening adult film worker safety regulations in California Tuesday in downtown Los Angeles.
In March, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board voted unanimously to convene the Advisory Panel in order to take public comment from health advocates, industry officials and the general public on whether—and how—to amend state health statutes to better protect adult film workers.
That March action came in response to a petition filed in December by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) seeking an amendment to broaden the Cal/OSHA’s “bloodborne pathogens” workplace safety regulations to better encompass adult film industry worksites.
During today’s meeting Cal/OSHA official Deborah Gold clarified a point of contention regarding condom use between advocates for condoms and enhanced oversight of the adult film industry and those producers, directors and performers working in the adult industry who oppose mandatory condom use.
At one point in the meeting, Gold stated that existing Cal/OSHA state bloodborne pathogens regulations DO cover condom use in adult film productions filmed in California stating, “Let me be clear: We’re not creating a new rule, we’re talking about modifying an existing rule.”
“It was important to hear a Cal/OSHA official so unequivocally say that existing state regulations already require the use of condoms on all adult film sets in California, something that is clearly not happening,” said Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Director of Public Health for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the group that first submitted the petition to Cal/OSHA.
“As we work toward the next meeting of this panel in October, AHF reiterates it commitment to work on improving the health and safety of adult film workers. We will work with both public health officials as well as people from the adult film community to ensure that condom use happens in these film productions.”
Also during the meeting, Robert Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, Director, Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, clarified that Los Angeles County health officials have officially linked eight of as many as 22 possible HIV infections identified between 2004 and 2008 as tied to the industry. Previously County health officials could only connect four of the 22 cases thought to be industry-related as tied to outbreaks or clusters of HIV infection the adult film industry.
Background on AHF’s Petition to Cal/OSHA
AHF filed its petition at the final 2009 meeting of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA) in mid-December in Sacramento. The petition sought an amendment to California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5193 “Bloodborne Pathogens” and asked Cal/OSHA to clarify protections for workers in the adult film industry and to explicitly include a condom requirement. As reported by the Associated Press at the time, (“AIDS group wants rule requiring condoms in porn” AP, 12/16/09) AHF said, “regulations to prevent the spread of bloodborne diseases in hospitals should extend to adult film sets. The current regulations aren't clear enough.”
