Group Seeks Safety on Adult Film Sets

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A showdown between the porn industry and an AIDS activist group is coming to the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards board this week in a hearing over regulations for condom use on adult film sets.

The board of Cal-OSHA is set to consider a petition from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in a public hearing at its monthly meeting Thursday in Costa Mesa.

The petition is the latest step in AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s long quest to require adult film actors to wear condoms on the set to reduce the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The adult film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley, where an estimated 200 production companies operate, employing roughly 1,200 actors and generating hundreds of millions in annual revenue. The largest and best-known company is Vivid Entertainment LLC, headquartered near Universal City.

The foundation intensified its effort after an adult film actress tested positive for HIV in 2009. In December, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Yaffe rejected a petition from the group in response to that case that would have required county health inspectors to compel condom use on adult film sets.

In February, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors refused to require condom use, saying the county lacked the resources and the power to enforce such a policy. County officials said the matter needed to be decided at the state level. AIDS Healthcare had already filed the petition with Cal-OSHA.

Currently, state health and safety officials regulate the adult film industry using general laws governing the transmission of bloodborne pathogens in the workplace. In its four-page petition, the foundation says the general laws can’t prevent potential outbreaks of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The petition calls for specific protections for adult film workers, including required use of condoms.

The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association that represents the adult film industry, opposes the AIDS Healthcare petition. The coalition claims that any regulations must be developed with input from producers, actors and production crews.

Diana Duke, executive director of the coalition, said the group is finalizing a 13-page “Exposure Control Plan.”

“Our plan puts effective risk reduction policies that the industry has been successfully utilizing for years into ‘OSHA-speak’ to assist Cal-OSHA in developing industry appropriate regulations,” Duke said in an e-mail to the Business Journal.

Duke said the foundation had overstepped its boundaries by calling for regulations.

“This is a workplace safety issue,” she said. “The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has no presence in the industry and therefore is not a stakeholder.”

Whitney Engeran, director of AIDS Healthcare’s public health division, said its clinics offer treatment to people with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, whether in the adult film industry or in the general population.

“The industry has had years to do this and they haven’t done it,” Engeran said. “The fact that they want to do something now is only happening because of the pressure that we and others have applied.”

Cal-OSHA administrators have already issued their recommendation on the petition. Staff said the board should set up an advisory committee made up of representatives of production companies, actors and crew members in order to develop additional regulations.

Permit Amnesty

In response to the tough economic climate, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has launched a six-month amnesty for businesses that have neglected to obtain or renew permits for their equipment and operations. The amnesty, which waives late fees or penalties, began Feb. 5 and will run through Aug. 4.

The “permit application penalty holiday” applies to all businesses and government agencies regulated by the air quality agency, except for very large polluters such as oil refineries or major power plants.

On its Web site, the district says the fees waived during the amnesty start at $900 for small equipment like a restaurant charbroiler and go to $5,300 for larger equipment like paint spray booths.

During the last amnesty program, in 1995, the agency received 600 permit applications, mostly from small businesses.

For more information, log on to the district’s Web site at www.aqmd.gov or call the agency at (909) 396-3385.

Direct Access Adopted

The California Public Utilities Commission last week voted to allow the state’s large manufacturers to choose their electric providers. That ability, called direct access, had been halted nine years ago when the state’s electric power crisis led the Legislature to cancel a deregulation program.

The 5-0 vote last week will allow large industrial companies in Southern California to sign up for contracts with third-party electric providers on a first-come, first-served basis, starting April 11. The contracts will be limited by a cap on the number of megawatts that Southern California Edison and other utilities can allow off their grids.

Large manufacturers sought direct access as part of the state’s deregulation of the electric power market in the late 1990s. They cited electricity costs that were double the levels in surrounding states. Since direct access was suspended in 2001, manufacturers had been pushing to bring it back. Last year, the Legislature passed a bill authorizing the limited return of direct access; last week’s PUC action fleshed out the details of how it will be implemented.

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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