YNOT – A CalOSHA subcommittee meeting Tuesday in Oakland, Calif., left adult industry insiders wondering whether faulty data and the antipathy of a mainstream AIDS advocacy group are exerting undue influence as board members of California’s state workplace safety oversight body consider clamping down on the adult entertainment industry.The meeting included discussions about potential new requirements for adult movie sets, including barrier protection, medical services protocols, vaccinations, periodic testing for sexually transmitted diseases and contingencies for handling performers in the event of accidental exposure to STDs. All are components of a proposed new bloodborne pathogen regime.
Those in attendance at the meeting included adult industry attorney Paul Cambria and defense attorney Karen Tynan. Dr. Peter Kerndt, a representative of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, also attended, as did several representatives from the University of California Los Angeles and Shipla Sayana, a clinician with the mainstream advocacy group AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Dr. H.A. Aranow, medical director for Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, attended as a member of the subcommittee. San Francisco Department of Public Health was represented by its director of special events, Frank Strona. Adult producer and Free Speech Coalition board member Steven Scarborough, founder of Hot House Entertainment, also attended the meeting.
During the meeting, Kerndt mentioned the 2004 HIV outbreak involving several adult industry performers, as he has at previous CalOSHA meetings. Kerndt staunchly recommended mandatory condom usage and testing regulations for adult performers. Representatives from UCLA also encouraged the CalOSHA board to mandate condom use and require adult producers to pay for STD testing and vaccinations.
AIM’s Aranow pointed out that in the past five years, his organization has administered 72,000 STD tests to adult industry performers, and excepting the June 2009 incident that precipitated consideration of stronger CalOSHA regulations, none of the tests returned a positive result for HIV. Aranow pronounced AIM’s current testing model — the standard for the adult industry — effective.
State Health Department representative Gail Bolan told the board “sparse” data collected about the population of adult entertainment performers demanded she recommend caution in reaching any conclusions about regulations. Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control also seemed to take a neutral position due to lack of data.
“The meeting moved along at the usual slow pace,” said Tynan, who represents several adult production companies. “My concern is that CalOSHA continues to cater to AHF and rely on faulty data to create new regulations which are not reasonable, nor are they feasible for our industry.”
She also indicated not all agenda items were addressed during the meeting, and the subcommittee did not discuss possible risks associated with specific sex acts. Although the board appeared to reach a consensus that very limited risk of STD transmission exists during oral sex without a condom, the meeting adjourned before members approached the topics of anal or vaginal intercourse.
“Progress made about no condoms for oral,” Cambria reported in an email to FSC. “Clear, sufficient data has not been established at this point to require mandatory condoms as [the] only answer rather than testing.
“More important meetings to come with more input from adult industry,” he added.
Adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition is watching the issue closely. For more information, visit FreeSpeechCoalition.com.
