Thursday, Jun 24, 2010    Text size: 

Officials are investigating "sanitary nuisance" complaints relative to 10 videos the companies shot in Florida. The AHF said that it filed the complaint with the Florida Health Department because the state does not have a designated occupational safety and health division.

"The Miami-Dade complaint asserts that the films demonstrate unsafe — potentially life-threatening — behavior in a Florida workplace, as the sexual acts filmed without participating performers wearing condoms depict the unprotected exchange of bodily fluids," AHF President Michael Weinstein said in a statement.

Weinstein said AHF has focused much of its campaign for adult film worker safety and condoms use by targeting the industry and health officials in California, but "in light of the tremendous growth of adult film industry in Florida, and in response to the repeated threats from California producers who say they will leave California and take their productions—and jobs—to other states, including Florida, AHF expanded its adult film worker safety campaign to include Florida."

Two of the films cited in it original complaint with Florida regulators include “South Beach Cruisin’ No. 2,” a double-DVD film by Josh Stone Productions, and “Barely Legal: Miami Girls,” produced by Hustler Video.

All of the companies targeted are based in Miami, with the exception of Hustler Video, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Weinstein said three Florida residents filed the complaints over “unprotected sex taking place on adult film productions in the state” under the sanitary nuisance statute as well as a Miami-Dade County sanitary nuisance ordinance.

Last week, AHF officials learned that officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has opened an investigation of the AIM HealthCare Foundation, a Los Angeles area HIV testing clinic funded by and serving the adult film industry.

The federal probe is focused on alleged privacy breaches of clinic patients and adult film actors whose health information was routinely released to producers in the adult industry.

In its complaint to federal regulators, AHF officials asserted AIM’s release of clinic patient data on HIV and STD infections via an online database violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other federal and state laws.