Nevada health officials said this week they are considering enforcing the same regulations required of sex workers in brothels on the adult film industry, which has steadily migrated to the state.
[Editor’s note: The HIV testing that is required for Nevada brothel workers is of a lower quality than that which is currently used by adult performers under existing standard protocols.]
The statement was made after California health officials issued an alert on Monday because an adult film performer in September tested positive for HIV after having unprotected sex with other male actors during two separate film shoots in Nevada. He had tested negative before the shoot but developed symptoms later.
“Agencies in Nevada and California have been working corroboratively to address this issue,” according to the statement by health officials from Nevada.
“This alert publicizes the first well-documented case of occupational HIV transmission among actors in the adult film industry, and makes recommendations for preventing HIV transmission during the production of adult films,” according to a statement by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. “The public health investigation and the laboratory results provide very strong evidence that one actor transmitted HIV to another actor as a result of unprotected sex during a film shoot.”
Nevada officials said that since California enacted stricter laws related to worker safety and communicable disease prevention in the adult film industry, there has been an increase in production of such filming in Nevada.
In 2012, AHF supported and saw passage of Measure B, a Los Angeles County law that makes condoms mandatory on all adult film shoots, saying that performers deserve to be protected while working. The group is hoping to pass a similar law statewide to strengthen mandates under the state’s Occupational and Safety Health Administration.
But the Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based organization that represents the adult film industry, has said the testing protocols for sexually transmitted diseases are effective. On most sites, performers are tested every 14 days and are not supposed to work until they receive a clean bill of health. The industry also has said that condoms are impractical because they break and they ruin the aesthetics of sexual fantasy.
The shoot in Nevada occurred in September and is not an immediate threat, according to the Free Speech Coalition.
The group said when it had become aware that the actor might be infected, it called for a halt in production in September.
While those on the Nevada shoot used HIV testing, it fell below the industry’s established testing protocols, according to the Free Speech Coalition.
“Non-compliant shoots are one of the chief dangers of pushing the adult industry out of state, and outside the established testing protocol,” according to a Free Speech Coalition statement released this week. “Not only did this leave those who participated at risk, it made it much harder to track scene partners once the possible infection was discovered.”
I was wondering how long that would take. Didn’t figure it would be a long wait. And if you think anything AHF might have in mind in its most heated wet dreams is repressive, wait until you see what comes with Nevada’s licensing procedures.
I thought it was a mistake for some people in the x-rated industry to focus their attention on Nevada as an alternative to condom regulation in California. Since prostitution is so tightly regulated in Nevada, it makes sense that porn movies would be handled the same way. Sex is involved in both brothels and the making of porn movies. The difference is that cameras film the sex acts in a x-rated movie. The x-rated industry needs to fight as aggressively as possible. If the war is still lost, then at least you can say people tried their best. I think… Read more »
I have a hard time believing this will actually happen in Nevada… Then again, Las Vegas has the second largest number of Mormons outside of Salt Lake City.