No info yet on the actor/actress' name.  I wonder how many have genital warts, herpes and hepatitis?

Federal Law is quite strict about privacy. The government can get the info if it has overriding concerns. Probably the case here. Might even be a criminal case if the actor was aware of his/her condition and continued with unprotected sex. But it has to be done through channels. Even the government has to follow the law once in a while. Of course, condoms would prevent the problem in the first place.

vacuity

Some of those stats are suspicious, especially the viewing age, something you cannot know for certain. The site does have an agenda, and stretching the truth would fulfill that agenda. Court TV as a reference? However, there are problems, and some of them are true enough.

vacuity

"State workplace safety officials at Cal/OSHA are considering strengthening rules designed to prevent transmission of disease through bodily fluids to specify the use of condoms in the adult entertainment industry."

If they do that the porn industry will move out of state, just watch.  Vegas, perhaps?  People want to see bareback porn.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iQhYdE5ce-qFqvgiTT70KeUPn8gQ?docId=CNG.09124ae0672d86c809510993fc566e1b.531

LOS ANGELES — An actor whose HIV positive test sparked a shutdown of US porn filmmaking in October lashed out Wednesday at the multi-billion dollar business and an industry clinic for failing to help him.

At an emotional press conference, Derrick Burts, 24, also called for the use of condoms to be mandatory and enforced, saying that regular monthly tests are not enough to keep porn actors safe.

He notably slammed the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), a clinic for performers in the porn industry based in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, which he says left him untreated for a month and a half.

"People who are behind the industry, the big shots, they need to come up with a system that works, that protects the=SPAM=rformers," said Burts, speaking for the first time since the scare erupted.

Repeatedly breaking down in tears, he added: "This is a multi billion dollar industry, and they can't reach out when somebody tests positive .. there needs to be more done."

At least four major film producers suspended filming in October while tests were carried out on all the known partners of the actor. Production resumed a few weeks later.

Burts said he had only worked in the porn industry for seven months before being told during a routine test at the AIM clinic on October 8 that he had contracted the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS.

Previously he had worked as a magician on cruise ships travelling around the world, and as a manager for Marriott hotels, he said.

Singling out the San Fernando Valley clinic for criticism, he said: "AIM likes to state that testing is enough to protect the performers from getting STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and HIV.

"That's completely false. Testing doesn't do anything except inform you of what you have, or don't have. The real protection comes from protecting yourself with a condom," he added.

Speaking earlier to the Los Angeles Times newspaper: "The fact that there's a lack of condom use in porn, which is a very high risk job, is very dangerous."

"One reason I definitely wanted to speak out was to help other (porn) performers realize the risk that's out there," he added.

He was speaking at the headquarters of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which he said he turned to when AIM failed help him find treatment a month and a half after his postive test.

Its chief Michael Weinstein said his government-funded foundation was not against pornography.

"However, we are astounded that the multi-billion dollar film industry and its fig leaf of a clinic could not even get it together six weeks after his first HIV positive test to link him to appropriate follow-up medical care."

The HIV case was the first in over a year in the industry, and comes six years after up to 14 actors tested HIV positive forcing several film firms to close.

There was no immediate reaction to Burts' comments from the AIM clinic, or major porn filmmaking companies contacted by AFP.

Nevada has lots of rules, including the required use of condoms with prostitutes. I doubt the porn industry would get any breaks there.

[quote user="Alsayid69"]

"State workplace safety officials at Cal/OSHA are considering strengthening rules designed to prevent transmission of disease through bodily fluids to specify the use of condoms in the adult entertainment industry."

If they do that the porn industry will move out of state, just watch.  Vegas, perhaps?  People want to see bareback porn.

Hustler Fined $14K For Not Using Condoms In Porn

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jcPlFxWp-SC6YzpW-HV8ZwPr9usA?docId=43531c741978432f8231634930e05944

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California workplace safety officials have fined Larry Flynt's Hustler Video and another porn producer for not using condoms on set to protect sex performers from exposure to disease.

Hustler faces $14,175 in fines for three violations, including failure to provide condoms or other protective equipment, according to a Division of Occupational Safety and Health citation provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.

Hustler "failed to ensure the use of appropriate personal protective equipment, such as condoms" to protect its employees from semen, vaginal excretions and blood in the course of producing adult videos, according to the citation.

The current fines are based on the same section of state law that also requires hospitals to provide nurses with protective gear to spare them exposure to blood-borne and fluid-borne illnesses.

Flynt has said in the past that audiences don't want to watch porn in which actors use condoms.

Hustler was also fined for failing to maintain a written injury and illness policies and for failing to provide workers with vaccines for hepatitis C.

Hustler's citation stems from a Sept. 14 inspection of a jobs site in response to a complaint from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that advocates for safe sex in pornography.

Forsaken Pictures faces $12,150 in fines for similar violations. The fines were issued March 9.

Cal/OSHA Senior Safety Engineer Deborah Gold said the state continually investigates the porn industry, though job sites can be difficult to find, and has cited a handful of producers for violations in recent years.

"Clearly if an employee is having unprotected sexual contact with another person then there needs to be either engineering control, like simulation, or people need to use a condom or other barrier," Gold said.

A telephone message seeking comment left by The Associated Press wasn't immediately returned by a Hustler representative. Contact information for Forsaken couldn't be located.

Late last year, a porn actor tested positive for HIV at a California clinic, causing panic among actors. Some San Fernando Valley pornographers in the multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry shuttered productions as a precaution.

Cal/OSHA Moves Closer To Mandatory Condom Rules

http://news.avn.com/articles/Cal-OSHA-Moving-Closer-To-New-Mandatory-Condom-Rules-437156.html

LOS ANGELES-The California Division of Occupational Safety & Health's Senior Safety Engineer Deborah Gold today released what is described as "a draft provided solely for the purposes of facilitating discussion at the June 7, 2011 meeting" of the Cal/OSHA Subcommittee on Control Measures-but if this is actually the starting point for the discussion, the adult movie and internet industry is already in deep trouble.

The meeting, which will take place at the California Department of Transportation building, 100 S. Main St., Room 1.040 in downtown Los Angeles is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but that hardly seems enough time to deal with the 17-page "draft"-which Gold is careful to say at the beginning of the document "IS NOT a rulemaking proposal from Cal/OSHA or any other entity," and in an email dated May 27 emphasized, "Please understand that neither of these files represents a rulemaking proposal from Cal/OSHA." [Emphasis in original documents]

But if it isn't, what is it? Nothing in the document indicates who created it, whether the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, someone in Cal/OSHA itself, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (whose petition forms the basis of the series of meetings that have been going on for more than a year), the UCLA Reproductive Health Interest Group (which has held two "debates" on the issue and has multiple members attend the committee meetings), or someone else. One thing is sure: No one from the adult entertainment industry had much if any input into the language.

Interestingly, Ms. Gold's email comes just one day after a Free Speech Coalition-sponsored industry meeting to discuss performer healthcare in the wake of the AIM bankruptcy and closing, and just two days after the Los Angeles City Council adopted a resolution calling for amendments to the California Code of Regulations which would require "condoms" to be added to the list of "personal protective equipment" required when there is "occupational exposure" to blood or "other potentially infectious materials" (OPIM).

What's proposed "for discussion" at the June 7 meeting, though, is nothing less than a rule requiring "a condom or other physical block that prevents the passage of blood and OPIM-STI to another person" during "occupational exposure" ("reasonably anticipated contact of the eye, mouth, genitals or other mucous membranes with genitals of another person, or with blood or OPIM-STI, that may result from the performance of an employee's duties") on the set ("area in which the performance occurred") of an adult producer ("an employer who arranges for, finances, directs, records, broadcasts, displays, or edits a scene or combination of scenes").

OPIM-STI, of course, means "pre-ejaculate, ejaculate, semen, vaginal secretions, fecal matter and rectal secretions, secretions from wounds or sores that are potentially infected with sexually transmitted pathogens, any other bodily fluid when visibly contaminated with blood or all bodily fluids in situations where it is difficult or impossible to differentiate between bodily fluids." [Emphasis added]

Moreover, under the section titled "Methods of Compliance," subsection (F) includes the following language: "The employer shall develop and implement work practices for the use of condoms and other barriers. These procedures shall include:

"1. Only latex, polyurethane, or other FDA-approved condoms will be used. Barriers will be made of latex, polyurethane, or other non-permeable material.

"2. Condoms that do not contain nonoxynol-9 and other spermicides shall be available at all times when work requiring condoms is performed.

"3. Condoms will not be used with lubricants capable of compromising the integrity of the condom barrier (e.g. latex condoms will not be used with oil-based lubricants).

"4. Condoms will be used with sufficient lubricant to minimize potential breakage. Lubricant shall not be irritating to mucous membranes.

"5. No condom will be used that is past the marked expiration date. Condoms (internal or external) will be used according to the manufacturer's instructions and FDA approval.

"6. No condom or other barrier will be reused.

"7. Barriers will be used so that only one side has contact with a performer's genitalia, anus, or OPIM-STI.

"8. No condom will be used if the interior of the condom has contact with another performer's blood/OPIM-STI prior to being put in place for use.

"9. The same condoms or other barriers will not be used for different anatomical sites or different performers.

"10. Condoms and other barriers will be put in place prior to any contact with blood or OPIM-STI."

(Perhaps those who have accused this reporter of "scare tactics" in assessing that the "barrier protection" under discussion includes-in addition to condoms-dental dams, latex gloves, goggles and face shields, may wish to revise their opinions.)

The "draft" also contains a laundry list of measures that producers ("employers") must follow regarding handling of "contaminated" materials ("the presence or the reasonably anticipated presence of blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM-STI) on a surface or in or on an item" as well as "laundry which has been soiled with blood or other potentially infectious materials or which may contain sharps") and how to dispose of them: "Non-sharps waste contaminated with blood or OPIM-STI shall be disposed of in plastic bags or other impermeable containers, which are closable, constructed to contain all contents and prevent leakage during handling, storage, transport or shipping, and closed prior to removal. If outside contamination of a container of contaminated waste occurs, it shall be placed in a secondary container that meets the requirements of this subsection."

But that's not all! Under "Specific Control Measures (E) Laundry" can be found:

"1. Contaminated laundry shall be handled as little as possible with a minimum of agitation. Contaminated laundry shall be bagged or containerized at the location where it was used and shall not be sorted or rinsed in the location of use.

"2. Whenever contaminated laundry is wet and presents a reasonable likelihood of soaking through or leakage from the bag or container, the laundry shall be placed and transported in bags or containers which prevent soak-through and/or leakage of fluids to the exterior.

"3. The employer shall ensure that employees who have contact with contaminated laundry wear protective gloves and other appropriate personal protective equipment."

And then there's Section (F) "Personal Protective Equipment," which contains the following:

"1. Where occupational exposure remains after institution of engineering and work practice controls, the employer shall provide, at no cost to the employee, appropriate personal protective equipment such as, but not limited to, condoms, gloves, and eye protection. Personal protective equipment will be considered 'appropriate' only if it does not permit blood or OPIM-STI to pass through to or reach the employee's work clothes, street clothes, undergarments, skin, eyes, mouth, or other mucous membranes under normal conditions of use and for the duration of time which the protective equipment will be used...

"4. If a garment(s) is penetrated by blood or OPIM-STI, the garment(s) shall be removed immediately or as soon as feasible. All personal protective equipment shall be removed prior to leaving the work area. When personal protective equipment is removed, it shall be placed in an appropriately designated area or container for storage, washing, decontamination or disposal.

"5. Gloves. Gloves shall be worn when it can be reasonably anticipated that the employee may have hand contact with blood, OPIM-STI, mucous membranes, and non-intact skin, and when handling or touching contaminated items or surfaces...

"6. Barrier protection for the eye, skin, and mucous membranes. The employer shall not permit ejaculation onto the employee"s eyes, skin, or mucous membranes. If work activities may expose the employee's eyes, skin, or mucous membranes to blood or OPIM-STI , the employer shall provide suitable barrier protection."

[Emphasis added] An "Attachment A" was also included in the packet Ms. Gold sent out, titled, "Permitting alternate measures to control risks of 'oral' sex," the purpose of which appears to be to discuss the possibility of carving out an exception for blowjobs (and maybe pussy-eating) "Until January 1, 2016"-if the "exposed individual" has received or is in the process of receiving hepatitis B, HBV and HPV vaccine shots; has a clean PCR-DNA test; has had his/her urine and swabs from his/her throat, ass and/or vagina tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea and found to be clean; and has been physically examined for "signs of STIs"-and as long as a "Physician or other Licensed Health Care Professional" signs off on it! Easy-peezy!

There's lots more in the main draft, though, including such interesting tidbits as a definition of "genitals" ("the penis, vulva, vagina, urethra, and anus, and adjacent structures and mucous membranes" [emphasis added]) and even "adult entertainment" ("the production of any film, video, multimedia, or other recorded or live representation in which performers actually engage in any activity that may result in exposure of the eyes, skin, mouth, anus, vagina, or other mucous membranes to the blood or OPIM-STI of another person if protective measures are not in place"), plus sections on "Exposure control plan," "Medical services and post exposure follow-up," and "Recordkeeping"-but hey, these are all just up for discussion!

To take part in that discussion, just set aside Tuesday, June 7 and plan to be at 100 S. Main Street in downtown LA-and be prepared to fight for your livelihood!