SAN DIEGO — A strong showing of support from adult performers and production personnel is hoped for tomorrow’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meeting in San Diego.
Two proposed adult film industry regulations are pending before the board, and regulators have slated a portion of the day to hear staff updates on a pair of bloodborne pathogen proposals that would change protocols for porn shoots.
While a vote on the separate petitions from the Free Speech Coalition and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is unlikely, Standards Board officials are certain to outline “next steps” and hear public comment from stakeholders over Petitions 557 and 560.
Thursday’s Standards Board meeting will be held at the County Administration Center in San Diego, starting at 10 a.m., with public comment during the first portion of the meeting and discussion of proposed changes to adult filmmaking protocols after a lunch break.
Tomorrow’s meeting coincides with the first day of the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. Comic-Con has typically attracted a fair share of porn performers, who have either represented studios or have attended the convention to fuel their fan bases.
Karen Tynan, an industry attorney who has traveled across the state for numerous Standards Board meetings where she has offered testimony on adult performer safety, this week reached out via social media to rally adult industry troops to attend the hearing.
Tynan told XBIZ that it’s important for those in the adult entertainment industry to consider showing up en masse, particularly because the opposition previously has tried to throw the biz under the bus.
“We know that AIDS Healthcare Foundation always asserts that they are the voice of performers and the testing system is fatally flawed,” Tynan said. “The voices of performers and producers have to be heard in support of the current testing protocols and in support of performer choice and in support of mendicant privacy.”
At issue are two petitions that request new regulatory language for § 5193 of the state code of regulations to address occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens on porn sets.
The FSC’s Petition 560 emphasizes performer control over their bodies and allows the protocols to improve by making use of scientific advancements. FSC's petition would keep current standards like the PASS system, but it would also add options, including the use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and vaccines.
Meanwhile, the AHF introduced Petition 557, which is similar to an ill-fated amendment that was shot down by the Standards Board in February 2016. That amendment, if it had been approved, would have greatly expanded barrier protection for porn performers and likely would have required performers to wear goggles to avoid ocular infections and dental dams for oral sex.
FSC Executive Director Eric Paul Leue told XBIZ recently that the meeting tomorrow will be “the first real sign as to Cal/OSHA’s direction since the defeat of the infamous condom-and-goggle regulations proposal in February 2016.”
“When we met with them earlier this year for the regulatory working group we presented them with lots of facts and data and a lot of performer voices.”
Tomorrow’s meeting before the Standards Board also will focus on other non-adult worker issues, including for those involved in the ship-building and healthcare industries.
The Standards Board meeting on Thursday, July 20, will be held at the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Hwy., Room 310, in San Diego.
Pictured: Industry attorney Karen Tynan, right, at a Standards Board hearing last summer in Walnut Creek, Calif.
