SAN FRANCISCO — Today’s issue of the daily Cal-OSHA Reporter newsletter reported details of last week’s Cal/OSHA Standards Board hearing, where a regulatory panel heard from members from the adult entertainment performer community and those from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation over two proposals that would amend or expand rules for bloodborne pathogen exposure at porn shoots.
The board, after nearly three hours of testimony and discussion at a civic hall in Walnut Creek, Calif., sent proposals from the Free Speech Coalition and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to an advisory committee, which will evaluate dialogue from stakeholders at future meetings.
With a headline, “Adult Film Industry Remains Under Attack by AIDS Activists,” and a kicker telegraphing “Screeching Wheels Get Oiled,” today’s issue of the Cal-OSHA Reporter gave a rundown of the meeting and noted that a previous Cal/OSHA advisory committee was convened six times between 2010 and 2011 over the same topic.
Cal-OSHA Reporter’s publisher also noted in a commentary to readers that the news source “regrets to have to cover this issue.”
The report, which includes a photo of adult performer Ela Darling, who spoke at the hearing, also quotes an anonymous source — a labor regulatory expert — as saying, “This is a continuing waste of taxpayer dollars. It takes time and staff attention away from other far more positive and important actions Cal/OSHA could be doing.”
At the Walnut Creek hearing, nearly two dozen adult industry performers railed against Petition No. 557, the AHF’s plan to dramatically expand rules for adult productions. The performers, instead, advocated for Petition No. 560, authored by the FSC and its executive director, Eric Paul Leue.
Pictured: Industry attorney Karen Tynan at last week’s Cal/OSHA hearing in Walnut Creek, Calif.
