State Of California Fines Treasure Island For “Exposing Employees To Semen”

The only surprise is that it took Cal/OSHA this long. Via XBiz:

Gay bareback studio Treasure Island Media is appealing three citations issued by Cal/OSHA, stemming from an investigation into the company that found it violated workplace safety regulations by allowing performers to have unprotected sex.

[…]

Two serious citations were issued for $9,000 each. One citation said the employer has not developed procedures for:

* Methods of compliance, including engineering controls and work practices;
* Hepatitis B Vaccination, post-exposure evaluation and follow up;
* Communication of hazards to employees; and
* Recordkeeping.

“On Nov. 5, 2009, Treasure Island Media had failed to write or otherwise establish, implement and maintain an effective exposure control plan,” the 23-page investigation report said.

“Employees were exposed to semen and other potentially infectious materials, due to work activities during filming and set cleaning.”

The second serious citation said, “Treasure Island Media does not observe universal precautions during the production of their films. They have not instituted engineering and work practices controls to eliminate or minimize contact with blood and semen, including, but not limited to, the use of barrier protection such as condoms.”

And there’s the key word: Condoms. Since the spate of gay porn set investigations in March 2009, California gay porn producers have been bracing for compulsory Cal/OSHA regulations. But even “safe sex” studios are leary about government regulation of porn sets; some fear it could lead to mandatory condom usage on all porn sets and for all kinds of sex–not just for anal but for oral, too. Perhaps the big picture question that everyone should be considering is just how much control the government should have in determining what people masturbate to.

Treasure Island has appealed the citations and is awaiting a hearing in 2011.

 

17 thoughts on “State Of California Fines Treasure Island For “Exposing Employees To Semen””

  1. In every other industry (in the western world, anyway) employers are legally bound to maintain a safe working environment for their employees. Does the testing regime some of the studios try to reassure us with count as maintaining workplace safety? Personally, I think producers who get rich inducing sex workers/performers with extra money to have unsafe sex for the bb fetishist market are a special breed of scumbag, but I’m also wary of over-regulation and possibly encouraging an even more risky underground bb scene.

  2. Yes, it’s a free country. Treasure Island is free to make tons of money by paying models to engage in risky sex for them. Models are free to take those risks.

    Will Treasure Island pay their models’ medical bills when things go wrong, even though they are “free” to do so? The taxpayers will. And baby that bill is anything but “free”. Whether it’s HIV, or just hepatitis, or mere urinary tract infections from E. coli butt bacteria – all easily prevented with condoms.

    So to recap: Treasure Island makes the money, the models take the risks, the viewer gets his rocks off, and taxpayers are “free” to pay the tab.

    Enjoy your freedom.

    If the public gets to pay the tab when things go wrong (and they will), then perhaps saying that they should get a say in the safety regulation of the porn business is not so far fetched.

  3. America is a free country where people choose to do what they want and may if condom porn wasn’t so fucking pickie on who they let in there business then this wouldnt be an issue, guys love bareback porn and it’s not going anywhere, it’s the person’s choice to do bb porn,it’s a FREE conurty to do what you love and wanna do, until there is a law banning bb porn, i say go for it.if someone wants to use condom then more power to then same with bareback.You don’t have the right to bash and try to oulaw bareback porn, just becasue people are tired on condom porn and see the same guys over and over again.bareback porn is porn and if you dont like, then dont do it simple as that.

  4. So glad we have Diesel Washington to tell everyone on the Internet how to think and behave. If it wasn’t for him we’d all have to act like adults and be held accountable for our own actions.
    So glad I can actually stop thinking for myself now. That’s a load off….

  5. Estelle

    Actually, fining a company for exposing a model to STDs/HIV/AIDS makes a lot more sense than simply fining a company for not using condoms at all. I can get behind companies being held accountable for misleading or pressuring models into performing bareback, as well as any repercussions that ensue from it.

    However, I still think the issue of safe-sex comes down to personal choice. Personally, I’m a big fan of prophylactics. That being said, people have the right to choose what they do with their bodies, and that includes making the wrong choice. Kind of a catch-22, but what can you do?

  6. Jeremy I don’t know how much you can apply the freedom of speech principle with Cal/OSHA which of course was created to minimize/prevent workplace hazards. Contracting a STD on a film set would definitely fall under the workplace hazard, I realize it can be difficult to prove that it was from a film set, but at the same time, there have been literally thousands of cases of STD’s reported in the relatively small adult industry over the last 5-6 years. Last year there was a porn star who was diagnosed with HIV and was wondering publicly on his facebook page on which porn set did he come down with HIV. Also there have been performers who have come out and said that they were pressured by producers to do bareback porn, so in that sense the argument could be made that the industry is pressuing performers to participate in an unsafe work enviroment.

    If Cal/OSHA is fining Treasure Island, they sure as hell better fine straight companies that show girls snorting semen up their nose, getting vaginal and anal creampies by multiple guys, and letting a 15 year old runaway silp through the cracks and film several hardcore scenes. Also there have been a number of porn girls whose rectums have been torn and damaged during anal sex.

  7. i agree with diesel. it’s one thing to push bareback as a fetish… i do like watching porn without condoms (guilty!)…. it’s another thing to convert someones ass into a carnival ride…

  8. Ooooo boy, slippery slope arguments…

    Personally, I’m pro safe-sex here, but at the same time this is a matter of freedom of speech (well, not so much speech, but… you get what I’m saying here) in that companies and models have as much a right to choose to film bareback porn as much as others are allowed to disagree with it. I don’t agree with bareback porn, but that doesn’t mean I think it should be outright banned; I just choose not to do it.

    That being said: exposure to semen? Really? For God’s sake, it’s cum, not hydrochloric acid.

    1. I wouldn’t have fancied seeing the film where they squirt a gallon of hydrochloric acid into someone. I’m sure there’s a japanese gore film in there somewhere.

  9. Finally!!!!

    Not sure if any of this will work!! But finally someone is moving a finger and saying “Enough is enough”!! Too long have companies like this got away with unsafe practices….. I mean glorifying the blood, semen flowing out of an ass. Come on!! They were begging for someone to take action!! It went from gay porn that is bareback, to this Machine of pushing the button with asses overflowing with cum. Nothing but closeup shots of cocks shooting semen inside gapping holes. All these titles with crazy names… “Asses overflowing with cum” “Cum up my Ass” Ass breeders 2″ it has gotten way way out of hand.

    The fight is far from over!!! But at least someone took notice and said “Enough already”

    1. The reason guys do bareback is because condom porn are so fucking mean and rude, there is nothing wrong with bareback you get to see alot of deferent guys, fats, skin-heads etc. what you see in condom porn the same fucking white guys over and over again, yes i said white guys, there are not alot of deferent colors is condom porn, all you see is white guys and you hear studios say ” oh we like diversity and we use ethnic guys, yea maybe for one movie, In bareback porn there is no standards you don’t have to be musclebound, ripped with defined six-packs, you don’t have to look like the boy next door with the looses asshole, You can be who ever you are in bareback porn, In condom you have to fir this mold and if you don’t fit your out of luck. I love both bareback and condom, but if someone didn’t want the rejecting for not being muscular enough to be in condom porn, there going turn to bareback porn where you can look the way you look as long as you can breed an ass or be a power bottom. so why take away bareback if condom porn is going to keep being jerks and assholes for not fitting there mold.

    2. Well, Ok. Diesel Washington, will you announce here, and then produce elsewhere, YOUR HIV status? I mean really, what IS your HIV status? I’m sure your negative but when was the last time you were tested and made it public so that the twinks you don’t get hired to fuck any longer can be assured that negative?

      A fair question in balance to your comment, I think.

      1. Well I guess your not familar with Diesel Washington, I write a ton of posts about getting tested, and even dedicated a post to visiting the Department of Health to get tested!! I boast about my results(HIV neg)all the time. I have gone on to Twitter to state my stance on the HIV issue!! Working with HIV+ models over and over!!! My stance is clearly known!!

        You don’t know me at all!! Too bad ……. I write a very interesting blog!!

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