Cal/OSHA Advisory meeting ? Adult Film Industry and Bloodborne Pathogens Standard ? June 29, 2010
 

Someone sent this in to me.

At it?s March meeting, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board requested that the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Cal/OSHA, convene an advisory committee to provide an opportunity for full discussion of possible changes to the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard as it applies to the adult film industry. ( Title 8, California Code of Regulations, Section 5193). The decision was in response to a Petition #513.

We have scheduled the first advisory meeting for Tuesday, June 29, 2010, at the Cal/Trans Building at 100 S. Main Street, Room 1.040 A, Los Angeles, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Approximately two weeks prior to the meeting, we will circulate an agenda for the meeting, and will also circulate any proposed language for discussion. Within the next few weeks, a webpage will be established for this advisory committee, which you will be able to access from http://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/DoshReg/a...committee.html.

You can find the Board?s proposed decision, the Board staff and Division evaluations and the petition at: http://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/petition513.html. You can find the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard at: http://www.dir.ca.gov/Title8/5193.html.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a web or phone-in option for the meeting. However, detailed minutes will be taken, and posted on the advisory committee page on the DIR website. A notice about disability accommodation is below.

We are very grateful for your interest in this issue. Please feel free to circulate this e-mail to others you think may be interested. (Most recipients have been bcc?d on this e-mail in order to reduce ?spam-blocking?). If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me at (510)286-7006, or respond to this e-mail. If you no longer want to be notified about meetings on this project, please email me.

Deborah

Deborah Gold

Senior Safety Engineer

Research and Standards Health Unit

Cal/OSHA

(510)286-7006

NOTICE TO PARTIES: Disability accommodation is available upon request. Any person with a disability requiring an accommodation, auxiliary aid or service, or a modification of policies or procedures to ensure effective communication and access to the programs of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, should contact Ms. Tracy Kwon, Statewide Disability Accommodation Coordinator at 1-866-326-1616 (toll free). The Coordinator can also be reached through the California Relay Service, by dialing 711 or 1-800-735-2929 (TTY) or 1-800-855-3000 (TTY-Spanish).

Accommodations can include modifications of policies or procedures or provision of auxiliary aids or services. Accommodations include, but are not limited to, an Assistive Listening System (ALS), a Computer-Aided Transcription System or Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), a sign language interpreter, documents in Braille, large print or on computer disk, and audio cassette recording. Accommodation requests should be made as soon as possible. Requests for an ALS or CART should be made no later than five (5) days before the meeting.

wow amazing.

nice reading

Mandatory condoms, dental dams, goggles and latex gloves?

As if things aren't bad enough with piracy, it seems to me that any Cal/OSHA restrictions/mandates just escalates the possibility of companies going underground, or moving out of California, or cutting back production even farther, or going out of business.

IMO, MANY jobs will be lost; and, (from these lost jobs) State and IRS income taxes will also be lost; sales tax revenues will be lost to California, and unemployment pay-outs and food stamps and other social welfare costs will increase. Isn't California already the least "business-friendly" State in America!!!!!!

IMO, we talent/performers who seek to be in this field of employment are already WELL-protected, especially relative to other employment fields; the "do-gooders" and bureaucrats need to get real!

IMO, the American thirst for porn will not lessen, especially viewer preference for a constant stream of new actresses; but any mandatory condoms (or dental dams/googles/latex gloves) will turn many of them off to American porn --- which might be replaced by porn from Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia, etc, some of which could be relatively hostile to women and teach American viewers that sex is about being mean to their sex partners, instead of being loving--yuk!

IMO, the State of California (indeed, even America) needs to totally restrict the Ca/OSHA part of State government from getting involved in this matter.

Sounds like the government wants to regulate sex?

i'm afraid that no one would care about killing jobs in the porn industry - a lot of people would probably applaud

but how you come to the conclusion that porn from eastern europe or asia is more hostile to women while you have someone like Max Hardcore and his productions is totally beyond me. sorry dave, but that somehow disappoints me

Dave, you have to face facts that California is intent on self destruction. Just move here to Vegas and forget about it. California is not gonna stop doing stupid shit until they are bankrupted...oh wait a minute, they already are.

I guess it just goes to show you that when you think a government hasn't got anything left that could hurt itself anymore...they can surprise you by coming up with more dumb shit to kill any little industry left that actually makes money.

Did you see where I used "IMO" in my posting where I also opined "....turn many of them off to American porn --- which might be replaced by porn from Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia, etc, some of which could be relatively hostile......."?

I used the word "many" because it leaves room for those who like the harsher stuff (plus, I keep hearing that more and more females are accessing adult sites and/or watching porn, so let's not lose that audience and/or leave us horny guys without as much "action" potential from the female audience!).

I used the word "might" because it's far from an absolute monopoly or certainty (but I "hear" that lots of the piracy problem involve Russia/Eastern Europe/Asia ---by "lots", it's my opinion that it's relative to all the piracy worldwide). I certainly did NOT mean to imply that there's no "harsh" porn outside those locations, or none in America.

I used the words "relatively hostile" because I also see and/or hear about some American porn that's not exactly "nice" IMO! Max's product doesn't give me wood or seem sexy to me personally, but I can't control how other's interpret Miller v. California or the First Amendment.

IMO, THE bottom line is that Ca/OSHA should not target porn made in California, an Industry which employs MANY thousands.

I've briefed my California State Assemblyman's office about this, and asked them to prevent the California and its bureaucrats from shooting itself in the foot; they seemed to understand, but.......?

I sense sarcasm in your voice. :upsidedow

I think that if we had higher standards for health regulations in the industry, especially in the US, we might have a talent pool of pornstars that doesn't turn over every 12-24 months. I've seen so many kids get eaten up so quickly in the industry over the years, and there is a common denominator to the majority of their cases.

When you think of it; alot of big organizations in a variety of industries today are finding that by investing/implementing preventitive health/wellness programs they're able to eventually earn a healthy roi. Why shouldn't the adult industry be any different? Costs a little in the begining to save/make alot a little down the road. I think the result in the future would mean that only quality content is produced, and there would be a much more limited supply available.

What?
I can't even begin to tell you how many ways that isn't right.

These "kids" getting "eaten up" are mostly strippers that escort on the side and shoot some porn scenes to get higher rates for escorting and bigger tips at the club. lol

And as far as "turnover"...I WISH there was more turnover so we wouldn't have the same couple of dozen girls shooting for every site over and over and over.

"Health/Wellness"? You're talking about hot younger girls who like to party. Same as most folks do when they're young. What are you going to do for "health/wellness"? Make them pee in a cup and tell them they can't fuck on camera cause they did a line of cocaine at the titty bar they worked at the night before?

Jesus... And then what? Put condoms on everybody?

Goodbye California porn industry. Hello Nevada and Arizona porn industry.

Yes, having sex is apparently dangerous. If Cal/OSHA has its way, homo sapiens will die out.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh Government seems to get stupider and stupider every year!

There's a LOT more to the turnover than just the lack of a corporate-like human resource wellness program. A LOT MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a talent friend of mine recently was making a visit to one of the doctors not controlled by AIM.
apparently this doc was asking a lot of questions about the performers experience in the industry as far as use of condoms etc
the performer was also asked if the performer would participate in a questionaire done by a UCLA study group to ascertain the level of "healthy work environment" in the adult industry.
sounds like cal/osha is working this on different levels:2 cents:

Jesus Christ Robbie..don't demonize talented strippers that deliver value, there are so few of them left these days.

Heck no! I LOVE those girls! Hell, I put many of them through college over the years. And I even married three of them. Girls in the sex industry are my favorite people in the world.

I wonder if, because there's blood in some NFL games, boxing, etc., if Ca/OSHA will mandate bomb-squad "uniforms" for games/matches played in California?

This matter could become a crisis for content shot in California. If other states also shoot themselves in the foot by copying California, this State of California stupidity becomes an industry-wide crisis.

YUK!

Thank goodness that the majority of people don't shoot in California. Mostly just the old DVD companies. Thousands of producers are throughout this great big world. It's gonna definitely cause a handful of companies who presume to be the "porn industry" to stop production in "Porn Valley"

But this ain't 20 years ago, and that area only represents the "porn industry" because things like AVN say it does.

I hope for the sex industry performers who live there that this gets squashed. At least the male talent part of the equation. They are gonna be in trouble.

The girls on the other hand, will just do what the strippers from the rest of the country do when they are hired to do a scene by one of the companies in Porn Valley. They'll get on a plane to the new city/state that the respective companies end up moving production operations to.

That's pretty much the short term "worst case" scenario. The current dependable male talent guys will either relocate to the new place, or find a real job as there is a line around the block everywhere else of good looking guys with the "talent" to keep their dicks hard too, who would love to break in the biz. (not saying everyone can, but I'm saying that there isn't any special magic food in Cali that makes it where only guys living in LA can fuck on camera...there are lots more in this big old world.)

Anyway, I hope it doesn't come to that. It would really disrupt a lot of people's lives. But as I've always said...IF porn were to become illegal in the entire United States, I would move to another country. There's too much money in this biz to just walk away and get in the unemployment line (especially in this economy). So I don't think most people would hesitate to simply move from California to a new base of operations. Companies do it all the time.

Don't forget Florida. >;-)) I've been getting calls from many of the California companies these days. Almost a year ago the writing was on the wall.

Forget all the California bull shit if you need great stuff shot in Florida give me a call. 561-386-5670
I have a huge talent pool and I shoot for many of the big adult companies including the owners of this board.

Shameless plug for self. >;-))

Heh-heh...you ARE the original web content guy. ZMaster was the place everybody got content from back in the 90's for online sites.

I used to go to most any paysite members area in 1998 and it would consist of Pornholio feeds and pics from ZMaster. :pimp

I've heard that New Hampshire is the only other state that has gone along with Freeman v. California.

Dave, I'm pretty sure that nobody has ever worried too much about that. Has anybody ever shot porn in New Hampshire? lol

Is that even a real state? :1orglaugh

I kinda look at Freeman vs Cali like this:
California law says shooting pornography is legal. Cool.

It doesn't mean it's necessarily illegal everywhere else. It just means you may or may NOT be protected if you do something stupid in another state and get the authorities on you for some reason.

My favorite analogy is this one: Just because California might say that breathing air is legal, it doesn't mean that it's illegal in other states. heh-heh

Plus, you're forgetting that the U.S. isn't the only place in the world. I've shot scenes in Europe, Jamaica, Mexico, and Costa Rica as well. I don't get in trouble...why should I? I don't attract attention to myself by doing anything dumb like those idiots that got in trouble shooting in children's playgrounds and such.

As long as you keep your shoots private and concealed and don't wave big red flags in front of the authorities, you aren't gonna get in any trouble. That's why the majority of porn these days is being shot everywhere but California.

Of course you'd never know that by reading the trade mags, because they are lost in their own little world there in Porn Valley.

You were smart (as always) Robbie, to move to where you're presently residing, instead of to California!

I WANTED to move to Cali... and the only reason I didn't is because I'm scared that an Earthquake is coming. :(

I had visions of me and you driving down the beach in California in my convertible picking up whores. And then making guest appearances on Entourage. But damn it...it wasn't meant to be! :1orglaugh

Hey, are you coming to the Xbiz show in Vegas? Haven't seen you in a while and it's always an honor and a pleasure to shake your hand.

Just three hours ago, we had a minor earthquake--but convertibles at the beach still were
active, and the girls were plentiful and gorgeous.

Can't make the show in Vegas -- the piracy has me on "money-pinching" status (even my haircuts are now spaced at longer intervals!). I've been in only five sex scenes all month; there's not a lot of shooting going on when the piracy gets no government intervention, but Ca/OSHA is looking to make things even worse!!!

Here's a good read why shooting outside of California & New Hampshire may not be the best bet for content producers....

http://www.georgetownlawjournal.com/...den%5B1%5D.pdf

Contracts for sex are illegal and cannot be enforced. A model release is a contract....

And this is why producing in Florida might not be a good idea....

Florida has a statute that gives a prostitute the right to sue a pimp/agent or even production company for profits. The exploitation of pornography is defined as coercion which will trip a civil lawsuit. Prostitution is defined as the giving or receiving of the body for sexual activity for hire but excludes sexual activity between spouses. And attorneys fees can be awarded if a model or prostitute is successful in the litigation. This is a very nasty statute for porn producers in Florida.

I would be very careful where and how you shoot content. You guys may not like California and no longer think it is the center of the porn universe, but its still 100% protected and legal here. If they can take down the industry here, it would be a cake walk to take it down in any other state in the US. Especially in a state like Florida where other than Miami, the industry gets prosecuted regularly.