California: State Inspects Porn Industry Clinic

California health and occupational safety officials on Wednesday conducted a surprise inspection of a medical clinic that tests adult-film actors for HIV and STDs. Since the disclosure last week of a female performer's positive HIV test result, public health officials and AIDS activists have complained that the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM) was not cooperating fully in the investigation of that case. The state plans to subpoena information about 18 additional HIV diagnoses AIM has reported since 2004.

"We were unaware of all of these cases until recent reports came out," said Dean Fryer, a spokesperson for the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health. "That's why we wanted to get into the clinic. We wanted to interview staff that work there. We wanted to look at records. We want to understand this."

"[AIM] allowed our people to do a walk-around," said Amy Martin, the division's special counsel. "They allowed them to speak to employees. There was no exchange of documents yet. There will be in the future and we'll see how that goes."

AIM founder Sharon Mitchell has told Los Angeles County health officials that the clinic is waiting for confirmatory HIV test results for the latest diagnosis. Legally, AIM has up to seven days to report the information, she said. The actress who tested HIV-positive and her two sexual partners have been barred from porn work pending additional testing. So far the partners have not tested positive, Mitchell said.

Martin said the industry standard of requiring proof of negative HIV tests before filming and retesting every 30 days is inadequate. HIV may not show up in tests for days, and the only protection is condom use, she added.

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