Cal/OSHA to require porn actors to use condoms

[Jupiter551]

well how can they enforce it? It's not exactly far from southern california to the mexican border. Drive the performers down there, shoot the scene...unless what, it's then going to become illegal to view porn produced outside the US? What about porn from europe? they don't use condoms (unless they want to).

The point should also be made at this time since I'm not sure if anyone actually mentioned it... it's been law to use condoms on porn sets for years now. This isn't a new thing, what is a new thing is that the central testing facility for porn valley has been forced to file for bankruptcy.

From a consumer point of view I don't really care one way or the other...from a realist point of view I think it's unenforceable and will lead to higher rates of STDs because businesses who, let's face it, care more than anything about making a buck, will find a loophole, the talent will go where the money is and the less it's under scrutiny the less rigourous the testing will be.

A few posts up I quoted an email from ex porn star Julie Meadows who was in the industry I dunno, many years anyway, and as she pointed out AIM was formed in 1998 so that monthly tests could be standardized, trusted, and producers could look at a test and understand instantly that the performer was safe (or not), and its genesis was that in 1998 a performer with HIV intentionally faked a test so he could continue working and ended up infecting several others.

In 2004 there was another HIV "scandal" when an AIM-tested male performer was tested safe, flew to brazil for a shoot, contracted HIV from his scene partner, flew back to LA while his AIM test was still valid and infected other girls. AIM was raked over the coals for this, and accused of being ineffective.

Late last year AIM took a lot of heat because it announced that a patient had tested HIV positive after previously testing negative - turned out the guy in question was not only doing bareback gay porn (where HIV testing is not considered the norm) he was also escorting on the side. :violin:

The Aids Healthcare Foundation has been trying to get AIM shut down for years, AIM shut down for good in May after going bankrupt over a privacy lawsuit when medical and personal details of its patients were leaked. From LAWeekly last month regarding AIM's closure http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/05/porn_clinic_closed_aim_testing.php

AHF honcho Michael Weinstein:

"Now that AIM has closed--and the industry 'fig leaf' is gone--the responsible thing for the industry to do is to put performers' health first and require condom-use on all adult film sets. Testing adult film performers for HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases is important, but has never been an effective substitute for safer sex and condom use. Performers were poorly served by AIM and are poorly served by an industry that places profits above worker safety. If the porn industry won't protect its own workers, it is time for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health--the government body charged with safeguarding the health and welfare of its citizens--to enforce condom use on all adult film sets in the County."

AHF has argued, correctly, that the state, county and even city can require condoms on-set. State workplace health officials told us previously that in fact they do require and enforce what they see as federal rules protecting workers from bloodborne pathogens.

However, enforcement is the key word. The state doesn't have the resources. The city has stated it can enforce condom use but that such enforcement is more for the county and state.

That leaves the county, which seems to point the finger at the state. In fact county health chief Jonathan Fielding said he doesn't have the jurisdiction (and pointed back to the state).

The industry, for its part, says mandatory condoms would force production out of state and underground, where conditions could be far less safe than they are in the Valley.

And what do performers have to say?

Ela Darling: ​As an individual and as a performer, I would rather have unprotected sex with someone whom I know for sure has been tested for HIV, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia in the past thirty days, than have barrier-protected sex with someone whose STD status is either unknown or positive.

Lily Cade: These proposed regulations are so absurd that, if actually enforced, they would drive the porn industry out of California. Taking my job away doesn't make me safer - it makes me unemployed. I absolutely, unequivocally, love what I do, and I do not want that taken away from me because of misguided concerns about my safety. We are not a hazmat team. We are not radioactive. We are fucking, something almost everyone does, and almost no one encases themselves in plastic wrap to do.

Justine Joli (g/g only):Being required to use dental dams, plastic over labia, gloves and goggles instead of testing wont make me safer. It will only take my job away.

 

[AngelAndrea]

well how can they enforce it? It's not exactly far from southern california to the mexican border. Drive the performers down there, shoot the scene...unless what, it's then going to become illegal to view porn produced outside the US? What about porn from europe? they don't use condoms (unless they want to).

The point should also be made at this time since I'm not sure if anyone actually mentioned it... it's been law to use condoms on porn sets for years now. This isn't a new thing, what is a new thing is that the central testing facility for porn valley has been forced to file for bankruptcy.

From a consumer point of view I don't really care one way or the other...from a realist point of view I think it's unenforceable and will lead to higher rates of STDs because businesses who, let's face it, care more than anything about making a buck, will find a loophole, the talent will go where the money is and the less it's under scrutiny the less rigourous the testing will be.

A few posts up I quoted an email from ex porn star Julie Meadows who was in the industry I dunno, many years anyway, and as she pointed out AIM was formed in 1998 so that monthly tests could be standardized, trusted, and producers could look at a test and understand instantly that the performer was safe (or not), and its genesis was that in 1998 a performer with HIV intentionally faked a test so he could continue working and ended up infecting several others.

In 2004 there was another HIV "scandal" when an AIM-tested male performer was tested safe, flew to brazil for a shoot, contracted HIV from his scene partner, flew back to LA while his AIM test was still valid and infected other girls. AIM was raked over the coals for this, and accused of being ineffective.

Late last year AIM took a lot of heat because it announced that a patient had tested HIV positive after previously testing negative - turned out the guy in question was not only doing bareback gay porn (where HIV testing is not considered the norm) he was also escorting on the side. :violin:

The Aids Healthcare Foundation has been trying to get AIM shut down for years, AIM shut down for good in May after going bankrupt over a privacy lawsuit when medical and personal details of its patients were leaked. From LAWeekly last month regarding AIM's closure http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/05/porn_clinic_closed_aim_testing.php

AHF honcho Michael Weinstein:

"Now that AIM has closed--and the industry 'fig leaf' is gone--the responsible thing for the industry to do is to put performers' health first and require condom-use on all adult film sets. Testing adult film performers for HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases is important, but has never been an effective substitute for safer sex and condom use. Performers were poorly served by AIM and are poorly served by an industry that places profits above worker safety. If the porn industry won't protect its own workers, it is time for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health--the government body charged with safeguarding the health and welfare of its citizens--to enforce condom use on all adult film sets in the County."

AHF has argued, correctly, that the state, county and even city can require condoms on-set. State workplace health officials told us previously that in fact they do require and enforce what they see as federal rules protecting workers from bloodborne pathogens.

However, enforcement is the key word. The state doesn't have the resources. The city has stated it can enforce condom use but that such enforcement is more for the county and state.

That leaves the county, which seems to point the finger at the state. In fact county health chief Jonathan Fielding said he doesn't have the jurisdiction (and pointed back to the state).

The industry, for its part, says mandatory condoms would force production out of state and underground, where conditions could be far less safe than they are in the Valley.

And what do performers have to say?

Ela Darling: ​As an individual and as a performer, I would rather have unprotected sex with someone whom I know for sure has been tested for HIV, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia in the past thirty days, than have barrier-protected sex with someone whose STD status is either unknown or positive.

Lily Cade: These proposed regulations are so absurd that, if actually enforced, they would drive the porn industry out of California. Taking my job away doesn't make me safer - it makes me unemployed. I absolutely, unequivocally, love what I do, and I do not want that taken away from me because of misguided concerns about my safety. We are not a hazmat team. We are not radioactive. We are fucking, something almost everyone does, and almost no one encases themselves in plastic wrap to do.

Justine Joli (g/g only):Being required to use dental dams, plastic over labia, gloves and goggles instead of testing wont make me safer. It will only take my job away.

If they want to make mexican porn cartels that's cool. But seems a little drastic. Those quotes are stupid. No NOT almost everyone has sex with multiple partners on a regular basis. And to say condoms are meaningless is just ignorant as piss.

 

[Jupiter551]

Where does it say condoms are meaningless?

Summary:

a) The group founded to provide a central, standardised 30-day STD test for adult performers was forced to close.

b) Condoms have been legally required for years, yet neither the state nor the county wants to enforce it - they both claim they don't have the money to do it, and they also both claim it's the others responsibility.

c) In the face of non-enforcement pornographers have continued to operate condom-free. Larry Flynt's sets get raided from time to time - he just chalks up the fines to a cost of doing business and goes on counting his millions.

Therefore, the only thing that has changed about any of this is that STD testing is now dodgy and inconsistent, the same as it was 13 years ago when someone faked an HIV test and spread the virus. Even the producers themselves say the only thing enforcing this law would do is drive porn underground and make it worse - and they're the people with the power to make it happen.

 

[AlexLady]

I find it funny that even though you visit sites like MFC, you think that people who do porn only do it for the money.