Foundations File Complaints Against California Adult Film Production Companies For Not Protecting Workers From HIV, Other STDs
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and the Pink Cross Foundation this week filed official complaints with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) alleging adult film production companies "have violated workplace safety laws" by not requiring condom use in films, the Los Angeles Times reports (Yoshino, 8/20). According to Reuters, AHF filed complaints against 16 adult film studios in California, and "[a] former porn actress joined the filing with a complaint of her own against three additional production companies" (Gorman, 8/20).
The complaints stem "from a June 17 report about a Southern California [adult film] actress who tested positive for HIV," and reports that other adult film performers have tested positive for the virus in the last five years, ABCNEWS.com reports (Downie/McGuire, 8/20). Reuters writes: "Porn executives insist the industry has successfully policed itself with voluntary guidelines that call for monthly testing and quarantines of actors found to be infected" with a sexually transmitted disease. Cal-OSHA spokesperson Dean Fryer said of the issue, "We take it seriously, and it will be addressed," (8/20).
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