AIDS Healthcare Protests at CalOSHA Standards Board Meeting

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today staged a protest in front of the office building where the CalOSHA Standards Board meets in the state capital over the fact that the Board has not yet scheduled consideration of the proposed revisions to California Health Code Title 8 Sec. 5193, which currently mandates "barrier protections" for any worker coming in contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). According to its press release, AHF expects to muster 50 "advocates" (AHF employees and supporters) to the protest, which took place from 8-9 a.m. this morning. Among the scheduled protesters are Cameron Bay and Sophia Delgado, both of whom AHF president Michael Weinstein describes as having become "HIV-positive while working in the adult film industry." Neither woman, nor any of AHF's other "usual suspects"—Rod Daily and Derrick Burts—contracted their illness on an adult movie set. Bay and Delgado are both scheduled to addres the Standards Board sometime during its meeting, which began at 10 a.m. in the State Resources Building auditorium at 1416 Ninth Street in Sacramento. Joining them will be AHF employees and "public health consultant" Adam Cohen, formerly of the UCLA Reproductive Health Interest Group; "public policy consultant" Miki Jackson and "public health consultant" Ava Aguado; as well as Dale R. Gluth, identified as AHF's "Bay Area Regional Director." According to its press release dated yesterday, "on December 17, 2009 AIDS Healthcare Foundation submitted a formal petition to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board to convene an advisory committee to amend the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (CCR Title 8 §5193). In the letter, AIDS Healthcare Foundation requested that Cal/OSHA “…clarify required protections [for] workers in the adult film industry.” [Emphasis in original] What resulted from that petition was a series of hearings conducted by CalOSHA's Chief Inspector Deborah Gold over the past five years, all of which were attended by representatives of the industry trade association Free Speech Coalition, adult industry workers and producers, who almost uniformly expressed their opposition to Sec. 5193's requirement that they not only use condoms while performing sex scenes, but also other "barrier protections" including latex gloves, goggles and face shields. "Since then, as Cal/OSHA officials have repeatedly delayed action on the petition and pushed back the item—omitting it from meeting agendas and keeping it shrouded in a veil of bureaucratic secrecy for the past five years—at least four adult performers: Cameron Adams (2013), Joshua Rodgers (2013), Sofia Delgado (her stage name, also infected in 2013) and Derrick Burts (2010)—have become infected with HIV while working in the adult film industry," the press release deceptively continued. [Emphasis in original] Actually, there was no "veil of bureaucratic secrecy," other than the fact that several CalOSHA employees and consultants, apparently in response to pressure from AHF, had been working for more than a year to update the language of Sec. 5193, which, it should be noted, only refers to hospital and other medical industry employees, to add adult industry workers to the regulation's text, and various versions of an updated Sec. 5193 have been released upon request over the past 17 months. "Meanwhile, given the years the Standards Board has refused or been unwilling or unable to act, thousands—not dozens—but thousands of people in the adult film industry have continued to come down with sexually transmitted infections, something that is still happening today," Weinstein lied, since over the past five years, the adult performer pool has consisted of less than 1,200 members, many (if not most) of whom have never contracted an STD either on or off adult movie sets—and none of whom have contracted HIV on set. It does, however, remain unclear why the Standards Board did not schedule discussion for the updated Sec. 5193 for today's Board meeting, since it apparently completed its revisions of the regulation back in November, and Free Speech Coalition CEO Diane Duke, among others, was expecting that revision to be put out for comment in early February, in time for its consideration by the Standards Board this morning. It is not known why that schedule was not followed, though considering how contentious such a revision is likely to be, the Board may simply be avoiding the conflict for as long as it can. "The Standards Board promised the item would be the agenda in February, then March, then April—now they say the vote will take place in May," noted AHF Senior Director Whitney Engeran-Cordova. "The standards board needs to lift the veil of secrecy. No more excuses! We need Cal/OSHA to stop delays and cut through the red tape before it’s too late." AHF, in the meantime, has drafted and sent to Attorney General Kamala Harris the text of a state ballot initiative which would sidestep CalOSHA regulations and require a change in the state labor code to require that condoms and "any other reasonable STI prevention engineering controls and work practice controls"—i.e., latex gloves, dental dams, goggles and faceshields—be used in making adult content, allow anyone to mount class action suits against producers who didn't use the "barrier protections"—and set Weinstein himself up as the state's "porn czar," a position he could lose only through two-thirds votes in both the state senate and assembly. While the adult industry may not find out until later today (if then) just when the Sec. 5193 revisions will be scheduled for a hearing, if they are to be dealt with at the Board's May 21 meeting, it would need to put the proposal out for comment no later than April 6—and when they do, AVN will analyze that proposal.