An actress who works in Southern California's pornography industry has tested positive for HIV, renewing county and state health officials' concerns that the adult entertainment industry lacks sufficient safety measures to prevent the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
OSHA porn inspections?! You can't make this stuff up.
UPDATE 12/17/09: Calif. board to consider requiring condoms in porn
From "Porn actress tests positive for HIV" by Rong-Gong Lin II and Kimi Yoshino, Los Angeles Times 6/11/09
The new case was confirmed to The Times and pornography industry websites Wednesday by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a San Fernando Valley-based clinic that serves adult-film stars in Sherman Oaks and Granada Hills. Public health officials, however, said no official report had been made at the state or county level.
Dr. Jonathan Fielding, health officer for Los Angeles County, said Wednesday that his office was launching an investigation.
Officials from the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health also said they will look into the circumstances of the case, which is the first publicly confirmed HIV infection in Southern California's porn industry since 2004, when an HIV outbreak shut down production for four weeks.
As the clinic downplayed the positive test, public health officials cited their ongoing battle with the porn industry over the use of condoms during filming. The two sides have been at odds for years, and despite the intense scrutiny, Fielding said he is concerned that condoms are still not being used.
"You wouldn't send someone to work on a high-rise building without a hard-hat, so why are we allowing these performers to perform without condoms?" Fielding said.
Deborah Gold, a senior safety engineer with the state Occupational Safety and Health Division, said her agency repeatedly had attempted to crack down on unsafe workplaces in the adult entertainment industry, issuing several citations against employers, including a gay male production company that touted its condom-free filming.
Despite those efforts, she said, numerous investigations have found that condoms were not used and that no training had been conducted to prevent unsafe contact.
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