Porn Industry Being Crippled

By Shelley Lubben

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation joined by former porn actresses and Pink Cross Foundation filed official complaints Thursday, asking California state regulators to force San Fernando Valley porn companies to require actors to wear condoms and follow health and safety laws.

The Cal/OSHA complaints will be supported with over 60 porn DVDs where unsafe sex and illegal production of porn is demonstrated.

The film companies to be named in the complaint include Anarchy Films, Backend Productions, Blue Pictures, Critical X, Hustler Video, Heatwave Entertainment, Immoral Productions, Latin Media, Legend, Mayhem, Maverick Entertainment, Raw Flesh, Sin City, Top Dog/Magnus Productions, Vivid Entertainment, and Club Jenna. 58 films from the 16 companies were considered in the AHF analysis. 1

But that’s only a handful of the companies breaking the law as followed:

“The California Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace for employees, and pay the costs of their health and safety program. This same act gives Cal/OSHA jurisdiction over virtually all private employers in California, including employers in the adult film industry. Employers must comply with all relevant regulations, which are contained in Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.”

Nobody is complying with these regulations. Porn producers could care less about the law. Even the self-professed “doctor” of porn stars doesn’t care. Founder of AIM (Adult Industry Medical clinic) and industry leader Dr. Sharon Mitchell stated in an article in the New York Times, "Honey, this is pornography. People don't pay attention to the Legislature."

The porn industry better pay attention because legislature is about to get involved in a major way. Former porn actresses will make sure of that.

“We aren’t playing around with the porn industry,” stated former porn actress Shelley Lubben and executive director of Pink Cross Foundation who publicly challenged the porn industry to a debate in a press conference held at Sheraton Universal Hotel on Thursday, August 20.

So far no takers for the debate. What, is the porn industry scared of a few former porn actresses with overwhelming evidence of porn companies not following Cal/OSHA standards?

According to the California Occupational Safety and Health Act porn employers are required to offer a safe and healthy workplace for porn workers. These requirements include:

• Following a written safety and health program, known as an injury and illness prevention program, or IIPP, pointing out potential hazards specific to the workplace and ways to protect workers from those hazards.

• Training employees in health and safety hazards

• Protecting employees from electrical hazards, such as those associated with special lighting

• Protecting employees from hazards associated with bloodborne pathogens

• Providing sanitation facilities

• Not discriminating against employees who complain about safety and health conditions.

As insiders of the porn industry know, these standards are NOT being followed at all in the porn industry. Certainly it can be proven and porn companies don’t deny it. Instead the adult film industry cowards hide behind the free speech amendment or make ridiculous remarks like:

"If Los Angeles County chooses to enforce mandatory condoms, what you'll see is all adult production leave California," Vivid Entertainment founder Steve Hirsch told the Los Angeles Times.

The porn industry isn’t going anywhere. First off, keep in mind that California is the ONLY State in which it is actually legally produce adult films due to a 1988 decision of the California Supreme Court (California vs. Freeman).

As a result of that decision, California became the first and ONLY state where a person can be legally hired to have sex for the purpose of making adult films. NO OTHER STATE HAS SUCH A PRECEDENT and it is simply ILLEGAL to make adult films anywhere else in the United States.

Sex in exchange for money (regardless of reason, or circumstance) is considered prostitution in ALL states. California just happens to be the ONLY one to make allowances for adult film production. While it is true there are companies who make films in other states, they do so contrary to law and are subject to arrest and face charges ranging from prostitution to pandering (pimping) if caught. 2

Not to mention, what other health department in another state, knowing the risks the porn industry poses on public health, will allow porn companies to set up shop? And if the health departments aren’t aware of the risks, be assured that porn companies won’t be able to pack fast enough before Pink Cross Foundation and other advocacy groups will be knocking on doors of health departments with evidence in hand.

The porn industry WILL comply or be shut down. They WILL care about the health and safety of workers.

But Hustler’s Larry Flynt is more concerned with porn consumers than he is with the very ones who risk their lives to work in his films. He told The Associated Press, "people who enjoy viewing adult films do not want to see people using condoms."

Perhaps Larry needs to think about the fact that his workers don’t want Herpes, HIV, or to live out the rest of their lives on medication, if they live that long. Maybe Larry needs to be forced to have unprotected sex in films for a year and see how he enjoys Genital Herpes or Gonorrhea. Maybe Larry needs to live paralyzed in fear like the porn stars do.

The porn industry has disabled and destroyed thousands of lives and porn companies don’t care. LA Public Health doesn’t care. Cal/Osha doesn’t care. But Pink Cross cares. Yes, the “conservative, religious” according to AVN (Adult Video News) cares more about porn stars than AVN does. That’s for damn sure.

We care deeply about the thousands of lives risking their health to make a buck. Your life is worth more than that!

Get help now at www.thepinkcross.org

References:
1. http://www.examiner.com/x-1916-Sex--Relationships-Examiner~y2009m8d20-AI...
2. http://en.allexperts.com/q/Adult-Film-2706/2009/2/distributing-personal-...
3. Cal/Osha regulations for adult film industry at http://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/AdultFilmIndustry.html