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Cal/OSHA and the Adult Film Industry - Making it Explicit

Cal/OSHA and the Adult Film Industry - Making it Explicit
Cal/OSHA has received a series of posts regarding its latest meeting that addressed the standard STD safety protocols, of the adult film industry.

Currently, Cal/OSHA seems to be weighing the merits of a petition that was issued by the AIDS Health Care Foundation to alter the state's blood borne pathogen standard. The industry representatives, the state and local public health officials and activists have already discussed how this blood borne pathogens standard can be effectively revised. In fact, this discussion was the fourth in a series of public meetings.

The existing blood borne pathogen safety standard requires "personal protective equipment," which is also defined as "specialized clothing or equipment worn or used by an employee for protection against a hazard."

However, the adult film industry representatives still believe that the AIM testing program is good enough to eliminate the need of using condoms on the sets. AIM (Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation) is a voluntary testing program for a large fraction of porn performers. On a monthly basis these adult performers test themselves for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV.

It is important to note that despite participating in these testing programs, a female star did get infected, but luckily she didn't infect any of the performers with whom she had unprotected sex. But the reality is that she easily could have.

Diane Duke, a member of the Free Speech Coalition, argued that the definition of "barrier protection" should not only include condoms but other literal barriers.

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