YNOT – A health-testing resource’s public statement lambasting a major adult content producer and the adult industry’s de facto health watchdog caught the latter off-guard Thursday, leaving Adult Production Health & Safety Services officials wondering how the organization became a party to a private business disagreement.
As a result, performers who use Talent Testing Service to perform the monthly health certification required by many adult studios may find themselves ineligible for testing reimbursement through the new industry-wide Performer Subsidy Fund.
On Aug. 6, Luxembourg-based Manwin, one of the largest adult content producers in the world, released a statement saying it would no longer accept health test results provided by TTS as proof that a performer was free of sexually transmitted infections. APHSS responded by assuring the industry that Manwin’s decision would not affect the Performer Subsidy Fund’s willingness to subsidize tests performed by TTS. Furthermore, Manwin’s announcement should not be taken as any sort of indication APHSS and TTS had voided their agreement to incorporate TTS’ results in the APHSS work-readiness database. The secure database serves as a central location adult content producers may check in order to confirm performers’ availability to shoot sexually explicit scenes.
On Thursday, TTS responded to Manwin’s announcement by distributing a prepared statement accusing the adult content producer and APHSS of attempting to steal TTS’ operational protocols.
According to TTS’ statement, Manwin asked the testing company “to provide its protocols for handling positive cases” in situations where an potential outbreak of HIV, Chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphyllis is suspected.
TTS evidently took offense to the request, noting in the statement that the company had agreed to “assist and help to create these needed protocols … but we would not have ours copied for use at Manwin/[Free Speech Coalition]/APHSS. We consider these protocols to be proprietary and confidential.”
Based in part on TTS’ position about exposure protocols, Manwin reversed an earlier decision to accept TTS certification of work-readiness.
“We have always believed that industry testing laboratories should be completely unbiased and unattached from any other industry affiliated organizations in order to avoid any misconception about the validity of the testing being performed,” TTS President and Chief Executive Officer Sixto Pacheco noted in the statement.
He also indicated TTS no longer would contribute its performer test results to the APHSS database.
On Friday, APHSS spokeswoman Joanne Cachapero told YNOT.com that TTS’ public statement perplexed and disappointed the organization, not least because the statement represented TTS’ first communication with APHSS about hard feelings and suspicion the testing laboratory bears towards APHSS.
“This is the first word we have received from Talent Testing Services that they have chosen to stop sending data to the APHSS database,” Cachapero said, echoing a prepared statement distributed Thursday by APHSS. “We regret this decision by TTS since it will have a negative effect on performers and producers. Further, it obviously endangers adult production industry self-regulation protocols, especially at a time when the industry is under fire from outside interests that support mandatory condom legislation.”
APHSS’ statement also averred the organization has “done everything possible to compromise with TTS,” which consistently has declined to comply with APHSS policies and eschewed the suggestion it become an APHSS-recommended facility, because APHSS and its members believe a united front representing consistent industry-wide policy regarding STIs is essential.
“APHSS-recommended facilities have been chosen from established healthcare providers that have agreed to abide by industry self-regulation protocols, including the presence of on-staff physicians and adherence to STI exposure protocols” established in consultation with public-health officials and infectious disease specialists, the APHSS statement noted. “These components are essential to any industry self-regulation. Without them, the industry has little defense against mandated regulation by governmental entities. The essence of those protocols has been effective since they were established in 1998.”
Why TTS has declined to comply with APHSS protocols is unknown, Cachapero told YNOT.com, but if the company refuses to submit its results to the APHSS work-availability database, the Performer Subsidy Fund, which APHSS administers on behalf of Manwin and other studios that have elected to donate money, will be unable to reimburse performers for tests performed by TTS. The APHSS database provides the only confirmation tests have been performed, as agreed upon when the fund was established.
“Without voluntary TTS updates for performers that choose to use their services, we cannot hope to know which performers have tested there, so subsidizing their test fees will be nearly impossible,” the APHSS statement noted. “Most critically, it will also be impossible for APHSS to gather data on performers that test at TTS, in the event of an exposure incident.”
Cachapero said APHSS plans to attempt a discussion about the issues with TTS next week.
