AHF To Protest Cal/OSHA ‘Delays’ in Los Angeles Wednesday

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF):

“AHF’s original petition from 2009 seeks to provide specific protections for workers in the adult film industry, as these workers have been shown to carry a disproportionate disease burden”

Condom advocates—including four adult film performers who became infected with HIV while working in the adult film industry since 2004—will join over 50 safer sex advocates, including other adult film performers, in a boisterous protest in Downtown Los Angeles targeting Cal/OSHA (California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health), the state’s health and safety regulatory and watchdog organization, for the agency’s repeated bureaucratic delays and inaction over the past five years on a petition seeking to update the state’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standards to better protect adult film workers and strengthen and clarify regulations regarding condom use in porn productions filmed anywhere in California.

On December 17, 2009, a petition filed by advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), with Cal/OSHA to amend California Code of Regulations Title 8 § 5193 was accepted unanimously by the Standards Board. Since then, however, OSHA has delayed most hearings and/or any meaningful action on the petition—most recently, with a delay until March 2015.

The protest, spearheaded by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), takes place Wednesday, November 5^th from 12 noon until approximately 2:00 p.m. on the sidewalk in front of Cal/OSHA’s Region 4 District office, 320 W 4^th St., Los Angeles CA 90013. In conjunction with the protest, a few members of the protest group will also deliver two (2) letters to OSHA District officials on the sixth floor, including:

• The original petition to OSHA dated December 17, 2009, which has NOT been acted on, and
• A letter from Nov. 3, 2014 to OSHA demanding accountability and action on the matter.

On Thursday, November 6^th, a similar protest targeting Cal/OSHA over its inaction on this petition to improve adult film worker safety will take place on the sidewalk in front of OSHA’s Region 1 District Office in OAKLAND (1515 Clay St., Suite 1303, Oakland, CA 94612) at 12 noon to 2 p.m. A few members of that protest group will also deliver the two (2) letters to OSHA District officials.

“AHF’s original petition from 2009 seeks to provide specific protections for workers in the adult film industry, as these workers have been shown to carry a disproportionate disease burden,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “The regularity of on-set exposure to infectious disease—including a multitude of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, HPV, and herpes—is alarming, given that the adult film industry is a legal California industry. Negating any ambiguity in OSHA regulations will have a real effect on the health of this particular group of California workers. We are fed up with OSHA’s bureaucratic delays and inaction over the past five years and are taking to the streets in Los Angeles and Oakland to demand accountability and action on this issue.”

In the November 3, 2014 letter to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board demanding action, Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Senior Director of Public Health for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, wrote, “Although workers in adult films should enjoy protections under the current phrasing of the regulation, the adult film industry has steadfastly refused to take any steps to protect its workers from diseases spread by bloodborne pathogens and other potentially infectious material. This is an issue of last resort. It is time for the Standards Board to finish what was started five years ago.”