Story from latimes.com/ By Rong-Gong Lin II,
Porn stars protest proposed tougher rules requiring condom use on sets
They tell a California occupational health and safety hearing in L.A. that the industry’s monthly screening for some sexually transmitted diseases is enough to protect them.
Porn actors and actresses Tuesday protested the possible strengthening of rules requiring condom use in adult movies at a California occupational health and safety hearing in downtown Los Angeles. Performers said they understood the risks of not using condoms, but believe current industry practices, which involve screening for some sexually transmitted diseases monthly, were enough to protect them.
"There is no way to make the industry risk-free. Making things safer does not make it safe," said a porn actor whose stage name is Jeremy Steele. "If you’re worried or paranoid, you should not be in this industry."
"As someone who is still working on the camera myself, I don’t feel any safer with condoms," actress Nina Hartley said.
State officials said Tuesday that California occupational safety and health rules already require condoms to be used on porn sets, citing rules that protect against employee exposure to "bloodborne pathogens," which include bodily fluids. "People just need to understand what we’re talking about," said Deborah Gold, a senior safety engineer with the state Occupational Safety and Health Division. "You can use the saw without a guard, and cut off that arm" as a private individual, Gold said. "But when you come into an occupational arena, there are rules that are going to govern the risks you can take." But state requirements and reality are different matters, and Los Angeles County public health officials said Tuesday that condom use needs to be enforced on porn sets.
According to the county, since 2004, at least eight people were employed in the adult film industry at the time of their HIV diagnoses. Four of those people are confirmed to have been infected during an adult film production. The annual prevalence rate of chlamydia and gonorrhea among adult film performers is higher compared to L.A. County residents ages 18 through 29, county health officials said.
The additional regulations being considered by Cal/OSHA would be written specifically for the porn industry, similar to how the agency composed rules mandating that employees working on the edge of a tall building are required to wear a harness or be protected from falls by a guardrail, said Amy Martin, chief counsel of Cal/OSHA. Martin said Cal/OSHA investigates every complaint they receive about porn sets where condoms are not used and has issued citations and fines in the past. Nonetheless, most heterosexual porn shoots are done without condoms. No decision was made at the meeting Tuesday. Another hearing is scheduled for later this year in San Francisco.
I was quoted first and only one of two porners quoted! Ain’t I the shit? Where are Margold’s golden quotes?
A lot of people from different perspectives and organizations spoke with authority, and I think that’s great. We should each have authority over our own lives, BUT not each others’.
Let me repeat the ring leader commissioner told me these meetings were for the purpose of interpreting and amending existing laws in regards to how they apply to the porn industry. OSHA, AHF and the PCF should duly take note of this.
The commission tossed out possible solutions like post-production visual removal of a condom in a condom scene, but then that was pointed out to be economically unviable.
Yes cocks have skin, so does the entire body. So why aren’t they pushing full body condoms?
Better yet, just have CGI porn stars which look real as the real (or the fake) thing.
Sorry, Charlie.
Like I told Joanna, politicians and religious zealots have been known to be far dirtier than the dirtiest of pornographers or porn stars. Dirty fingers pointing and/or throwing stones and anger or hostility based legislation is not going to help any of us.
A day will come where all porn will be made with computer’s animated characters so…no more stds,no more flakes,no more prima dona,no more agencies,no more talents to pay…all the money going in the pocket of the big shots that have the money to create the animation videos.To compete with that,there will be the solo girl’s sites with live inter-active shows.
sounds like a song, leslie:
here’s mine
no more stds
no porn flakes
no more ods
and funeral wakes
no more pay for play
a sad day these days
the ahf shot a bad load
on yo’ face
meanwhile,
that prima donna’s so
post-madonna
tell her to come back
manana…
adios assholios
-js
Good Song Jeremy!! How about…Got a wife,very Horny wife..Her sex life is on the shelf! She’s got to do it all here self!!all here tight little butt..Just drives me nuts..fellas, We all know whats its like…fellas, We all know what its like..To love there Bodies…To love there Bodies..all tooo Love them….ohhhh ohhhhh… ok later, gator!!
Does anyone else find this kind of funny. Free Speech Coalition lawyers argue that if these rules are enforced, then the companies they represent will go ‘underground’ and continue to produce their product in even less safe conditins than they are now.? Are the actually admitting that their clients will put the perfromers in MORE danger in order to continue making their product.
Is that really a good argument against regulation.regulation…..”If you try to regulate us, we wil just hide and put people in more danger,,so you better not regulate us.”
Now I can understand why SHaron Mitchell got her own lawyers for AIM’s legal problems, and not the FSC.
Paul cambia…”I say this becuase what will result by placing them in this postition is, the less-responsible producers will go underground and the more responsible producers will relocate out of state. ANd what this will do is result in little or no protections for the adutlt workers…..”
Quote fro Paul cambia at the first osha hearing
Isn it just possible that the “less resposible” producers, as Cambria calls them are already violating the current standards, like they did in the 2004 outbreak and the recent patient zero case. WHy does Cambia assume that those ‘Less responsible’ producers are following the current standards?