California: AHF Goes After Bareback Gay Porn by Treasure Island -- AIDS Group Files Complaints With Cal/OSHA Over Condom-Less Porn

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) plans to file "Notice of Safety or Health Hazards" complaints with California's Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) about the lack of condom use in adult films made by the film production company Treasure Island Media, Inc., which produces films for the gay market. AHF has named the owner and general manager of the company in the complaint.

AHS officials reviewed 11 adult DVDs produced and/or distributed by Treasure Island and found they included scenes filmed without condoms that demonstrate the unprotected exchange of bodily fluids. AHF plans to support its complaints by submitting these DVDs, and will assert that the films demonstrate unsafe, potentially life-threatening behavior in a California workplace and that the film sets where condoms are not used provide unsafe California work environments.

Between 2004 and 2010, 23 persons thought to be connected with the adult film industry have tested positive for HIV. Los Angeles County health officials determined that eight of these individuals were likely infected as a result of their work. Also, Los Angeles County voters recently supported a November 2012 ballot measure requiring producers of adult films to obtain a county public health permit; follow all health and safety laws, including condom use; and pay a permit fee sufficient to cover all enforcement costs.

AHF President Michael Weinstein explains that as a global HIV and STD medical provider operating treatment clinics and prevention facilities in California, AHF considers it a duty to pursue action on the issue of safety in the workplace -- in this case unprotected sex acts taking place in an untraditional workplace. According to Weinstein, AHF is "filing workplace health and safety complaints with Cal/OSHA to press for the enforcement of existing state and local workplace regulatory guidelines [that] would require the use of condoms in ... all adult films produced in California."

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