Not a Joke: Proposed New California Law Would Require Porn Actors to Wear Safety Goggles

Cody Cummings wore goggles to His First Facial and that was hilarious. But if proposed new regulations for adult films in California are enacted, all porn actors would be required to wear safety goggles — and no one in Porn Land is laughing at that.

One of the regulations under the very unsexy sounding ‘Cal/OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens statutes’ requires condoms for all adult film production in CA. This is nothing new. But as Business Wire pointed out “with few legal or regulatory repercussions—including a lack of effective enforcement by Cal/OSHA,” it has often been ignored.

Then, in December of 2009, Mike Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation(AHF) wrote the first in a series of letters targeting producers of unprotected sex to the State Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), as reported by NBC Los Angeles, specifically targeting Treasure Island as public enemy number one. Since then, AHF has filed complaints against many other studios including Kink.com, Hustler, Vivid, Reality Kings and Bang Bros. More recently, Kink.com has specifically called out the AHF for their tactics and have been fighting fines levied against them by Cal/OSHA.

The ensuing dust-up and 6 million dollars from the AHF later, saw the passage of ‘Measure B,’ requiring condoms to worn on all porn filmed in Los Angeles County, reported by APHSS. But the AHF wasn’t done: they lobbied Cal/OSHA for strict controls that resulted in a 21 page draft of proposed new regulations that would include protective eye gear.

Fighting against over-burdensome regulations and for the safety of adult performers is the Free Speech Coalition(FSC). Commenting specifically on these proposed regulations, FSC Executive Director Diane Duke told The Daily News, “These are regulations designed for medical settings, and are unworkable on an adult film set — or even a Hollywood film set.”

At the heart of FSC argument against the proposed regulations is that they do more to protect the studios from litigation and myopically concentrate on HIV transmission. As they write on their blog:

Rather than merely mandating condoms, the industry’s own amended regulations include multiple options for STI prevention, including the industry’s current testing protocol, known as PASS, biomedical prevention methods like PrEP, and condoms for performers who prefer them. In an industry shift, producers would bear the cost of production-related STI testing for employees.

And that brings us up to date: The period for public commentary on the proposed regulations ended last Thursday, May 21 at a CAL/OSHA hearing in San Diego with the testimony of 40 people and two dozen written comments. According to Peter Melton, spokesman for the Department of Industrial Relations. Cal/OSHA, a decision is expected no later than March. Until then, we’ll just have to wait … and at least for now … see.

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Taken in front of the Cal/OSHA Building on May 21, 2015, the FSC was joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, the County of Los Angeles Commission on HIV, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Equality California, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), which represents adult performers in opposition to the proposed regulations.

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Diane Duke, the Executive Director of Free Speech Coalition (FSC).

5 thoughts on “Not a Joke: Proposed New California Law Would Require Porn Actors to Wear Safety Goggles”

  1. Miles of Isles

    They’re also going to make Hollywood stunt men wear big rubber inflatable suits.

    It’s probably not going to happen but I hate the AHF more each day.

  2. Why not just have porn that’s 2 attractive men in 3 piece suits sipping tea… cos at this point, why even bother with the sex? I mean I absolutely understand the condom part, I don’t agree with it but I understand it. The goggles is stupid, the goggles they do nothing. I mean it’s just stupid in all kinds of ways

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