The meeting’s agenda was scheduled to cover several topics including barrier protection use by performers and also possible medical protocols that include vaccinations, periodic STD screening, and post-exposure procedures.
The Cal/OSHA Board of Directors and subcommittee members also had planned to discuss how current recommendations for regulation might be affected by various levels of barrier protection used during specific sex activities on adult sets.
Those in attendance at the meeting included industry attorney Paul Cambria and OSHA defense attorney Karen Tynan. Dr. Peter Kerndt, representing the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), also attended the meeting as well as several representatives from the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA); Shipla Sayana, an AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) clinician, was present as well.
Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM) medical director Dr. H.A. Aranow attended as a member of the subcommittee. San Francisco Department of Public Health’s was represented at the meeting by its Director of Special Events Frank Strona. Adult producer and FSC Board member, Steven Scarborough, founder of Hot House Entertainment, attended the session as well.
Sources at the meeting reported that Dr. Kerndt mentioned the 2004 HIV incident involving several adult industry performers, as he has at previous Cal/OSHA meetings. Kerndt continued to staunchly recommend mandatory condoms and testing regulations for adult performers. Representatives from UCLA also encouraged the OSHA Board of Directors to mandate condom use and require adult producers to pay for STD testing and vaccinations.
AIM’s Dr. Aranow pointed out that in the last five years there have been 72,000 STD tests administered to adult industry performers, without a positive result for HIV (except the June 2009 incident, which prompted the mandatory condom campaign waged by HIV activist organization AHF). Dr. Aranow cited the current testing model as effective.
State Health Department representative Gail Bolan stated to the board that because of “sparse” data collected on the performing population that caution should be taken in reaching any conclusions for recommendations or regulations. Sources also stated that representatives from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also seemed to take a more neutral position due to lack of data.
“The meeting moved along at the usual slow pace,” said attorney Tynan, who represents several adult production companies. “My concern is that Cal/OSHA continues to cater to AHF and rely on faulty data to create new regulations which are not reasonable nor are they feasible for our industry.”
She also stated that not all agenda items had been addressed and that the subcommittee had not discussed possible risks associated with specific sex acts.
Sources reported that the board appeared to reach a consensus concerning very limited risk of STDs transmission during oral sex without a condom, without internal ejaculation. However, the meeting was adjourned before they could approach the topics of anal or vaginal sex performances.
Industry attorney Cambria referred to the need for further discussion and said, “Progress made about no condoms for oral. Clear sufficient data has not been established at this point to require mandatory condoms as [the] only answer rather than testing.”
“More important meetings to come with more input from adult industry,” Cambria added.
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