CANOGA PARK, Calif. – The production moratorium in effect since Sept. 6 will be lifted Friday, Performer Availability Screening Services said late Monday. By then, production of sexually explicit scenes will have been on hiatus for 14 days.
The voluntary moratorium was declared after a third adult performer in as many weeks tested positive for HIV during a routine health screening. A previous moratorium, declared Aug. 20 after discovery of the first HIV-positive test, was lifted Aug. 27.
Adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition, which administers PASS, remains certain none of the infected performers contracted the disease on-set or transmitted it to scene partners.
In order to be considered available for work, all performers must present test results dated Sept. 19 or later. In addition, going forward performers are required to test no less often than every 14 days. Previously, the limit on an acceptable test was 28 days prior to shooting.
“Our industry protocols are designed to be conservative, and [PASS’] doctors support a conservative approach for the health and wellbeing of the performers,” said FSC Chief Executive Officer Diane Duke. “That is why, moving forward, the physicians have recommended and we have implemented a 14-day testing protocol.”
Duke said the HIV RNA Aptima test recommended by PASS’ medical advisory board is designed to detect HIV within seven to 10 days of exposure; therefore, PASS’ doctors feel secure in recommending an end to the moratorium after 14 days. The Aptima test’s seven- to 10-day window also makes a 14-day retest schedule prudent, she added, indicating expense should not be an issue: No one can put a price on performers’ health and safety.
No additional cases of HIV have been documented since Sept. 6. A fourth case, alleged to exist by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, remains unconfirmed.
“We have no substantiation for a fourth case,” FSC Membership and Communications Director Joanne Cachapero told WeHo News. “It’s something [AHF] put in press and have not elaborated on; it’s just a bunch of lies to promote [AHF President Michael Weinstein’s] cause — condoms — as far as we can tell.”
Weinstein and AHF have been engaged in a bitter, years-long battle with the adult entertainment industry over the issue of mandatory condom usage on adult film sets. The two sides are embroiled in a lawsuit challenging Los Angeles County’s Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, a local ordinance that requires adult performers and other personnel on adult film sets to wear barrier protection when a risk of exchanging bodily fluids exists. AHF reportedly spent millions of dollars and untold man-hours convincing L.A. County voters to pass the law as a ballot initiative in November 2012. AHF also reportedly played a significant role in California state legislator Isadore Hall III’s two recent failed attempts to pass a nearly identical law statewide.
Duke said recent events have convinced FSC and PASS to make another change in the industry’s workplace safety protocols: In cooperation with medical professionals, workplace safety specialists and performers, FSC and PASS are formulating a performer education program.
“We can do more to help our performers learn how to protect themselves, on-screen and off,” Duke said. “While the increased testing will further ensure safer sets, it is important that we remain vigilant. Going forward, we need to constantly look to performers, producers and healthcare professionals to find ways to improve our protocols.”
