LA porn industry stung by first condom fines
This story raises all sorts of disturbing questions, especially in this age of HIV/AIDS. Of course, California being the Progressive place that it is, there are laws in place to protect sex workers. At least in this instance, these laws can be said to work.
California’s state health and safety board fined Evasive Angles and TTB Productions $30,560…each for making porn movies which it said exposed three actors to HIV infections.
It was the first time that the California Division of Occupational Health and Safety (Cal/OSHA) had taken regulatory action against the multibillion dollar adult film industry in Los Angeles, which employs some 6,000 people in 200 production companies turning out dozens of films and videos a week.
“This is a huge departure. This is really like dropping a bomb,” said Sharon Mitchell, director of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) which runs a voluntary HIV-screening program for the industry….
The fines followed an HIV outbreak last April involving five actors who tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS. The nervous industry shut down voluntarily for a month while about 50 actors who had worked with those infected awaited test HIV test results.
Porn film producers have resisted compulsory condom rules saying they take the sizzle out of sex scenes and consumers do not want to watch safe sex. But Cal/OSHA said porn actors had the same legal right to a safe workplace as employees in more conventional businesses.
Here’s what I want to know, though: are there people whose job desription is to monitor porn shoots? And if there are, just what sort of monitoring does this entail? Is this like up close and personal…and just how close do you have to be in order to verify that an actor is wearing a condom? Do you have to go to college for this sort of thing? Man, I can just see the degree program…
“Hey, what did you get your degree in at UCLA?”
“Oh, I have an MA in Porn Management”
Yeah, THAT will get a few laughs in an interview….
