State regulators voted Thursday to establish a committee to explore the possibility of requiring porn industry performers to use condoms and to take other safety measures. <\/p>\n
The six-member California Division of Occupational Safety and Health<\/a> standards board voted unanimously on the advice of staff to create an advisory committee to report back on whether to change state law to require safe-sex protections for adult-film actors and actresses. <\/p>\n The decision was greeted with applause from the crowd of about 40 people, including current and former adult-film performers, at Costa Mesa City Hall.<\/p>\n Board member Guy Prescott, director of safety for Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3, said he had planned to vote against the measure but changed his mind after hearing from performers and other members of the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question is the particular acts and exposures to the workers and what are we doing to prevent that,\u201d said board member Jonathan Frisch, principal risk manager at PG&E Corp. "I found it extremely interesting to hear from members of the industry here this morning. It\u2019s going to be very, very important that we do have them at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The board, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, had up to six months to act on a Dec. 17, 2009 petition filed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation<\/a> to change state law and\u00a0require mandatory condom use for adult-film workers and more stringent safety training and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe the state of California has a responsibility to regulate these workplaces as they do every other workplace,\u201d AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein told the board.<\/p>\n The foundation has been pushing regulators and porn industry leaders to better safeguard the health of adult-film performers since an HIV outbreak among porn performers in the San Fernando Valley in 2004.<\/p>\n More than a dozen speakers addressed the board before the vote, including Los Angeles County public health experts and several current and former adult-film workers.<\/p>\n Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, director of communicable disease control and prevention at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, recommended mandatory condom use and increased, free STD screening for adult-film performers. <\/p>\n Rates of STDs such as chlamydia and gonorrhea are seven times higher in the adult-film industry than in the general population, he said, and up to a quarter of performers are diagnosed with an STD in a given year.<\/p>\n Former porn actor Darren James, who tested HIV-positive during a 2004 outbreak<\/a>, called current industry STD testing practices a security blanket that actors mistakenly believe protects them from infection.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think you\u2019re safe but you\u2019re not; in between scenes, you don\u2019t know what other actors are doing,\u201d James told the board.<\/p>\n Then he turned to the crowd and addressed fellow actors.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m living your nightmare every day,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to live what I\u2019m going through now.\u201d<\/p>\n Actress Angelina Armani disagreed. She said that during the last two years she has appeared in many adult films, has been tested regularly for STDs and has never contracted a disease.<\/p>\n \u201cMy industry has protected my safety and continues to protect the safety of other performers,\u201d Armani told the board.<\/p>\n Last summer, the foundation sued Los Angeles County<\/a> after the disclosure that an adult-film performer had tested positive for HIV<\/a>. In the suit, it alleged public health officials failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to enforce laws requiring employers to protect workers against exposure to bodily fluids. <\/p>\n The suit was dismissed by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge late last year, but the foundation appealed the decision last Thursday.<\/p>\n