LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will file new ‘Notice of Safety or Health Hazards’ complaints with Cal/OSHA (California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health), the state’s health and safety regulatory and watchdog organization, over the lack of condom use in adult films produced by Treasure Island Media, Inc., a Bay Area adult film production company that primarily serves and produces films for the gay market. The complaints—AHF’s first targeting the bareback gay market—will be filed early next week with Cal/OSHA. AHF filed similar worker safety complaints with Cal/OSHA beginning in August 2009 against 16 California-based adult film companies, and in the years since, filed additional complaints specifically targeting Steve Hirsch’s Vivid Entertainment as well as Larry Flynt’s Hustler Video. To date, Cal/OSHA has opened investigations into several of the companies, has cited and fined several, and is still evaluating and considering additional investigations of some of the remaining companies.
AHF will support its current worker safety complaints with the submission of 11 Treasure Island Media, Inc. adult DVDs filmed under various T.I. brands in which the performers do not wear condoms. Treasure Island officials to be named in the complaints include owner Charles Steven Key (AKA Paul Morris) and General Manager Michael Triolo (AKA Matt Mason). AHF’s Cal/OSHA complaints will assert that the films demonstrate unsafe—potentially life-threatening—behavior in a California workplace, as the sexual acts filmed without participating performers using condoms depict the unprotected exchange of bodily fluids.
“As a global HIV and STD medical provider operating treatment clinics and prevention facilities here in California, we see it as our duty to pursue action on the issue of safety in the workplace—in these instances, unprotected sex acts taking place in albeit non-traditional workplaces—porn sets located throughout the San Fernando Valley that are churning out billions of dollars of adult fare every day,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Treasure Island has been quite vocal and outspoken in its opposition to condom use in the company’s films. This is why we are filing workplace health and safety complaints with Cal/OSHA: to press for the enforcement of existing state and local workplace regulatory guidelines which would require the use of condoms in their—and all—adult films produced in California.”
Background Materials for AHF’s New Complaint to Cal/OSHA regarding Treasure Island Media:
In support of its latest complaint to Cal/OSHA asserting that film sets where condoms are not used provide unsafe California work environments, AIDS Healthcare Foundation officials undertook a review and analysis of 11 adult films produced and/or distributed by Treasure Island Media, Inc. AHF will submit the DVDs to Cal/OSHA in support of its workplace safety complaint regarding these California film sets when it files the complaints early next week. Among AHF’s findings, the films analyzed included scenes filmed without condoms that demonstrate the unprotected exchange of bodily fluids, ALL filmed without any condoms being used.
- 11 adult entertainment (porn) DVDs purchased;
- All DVDs included unprotected sex;
- NO FILMS had performers using condoms
Film titles examined included:
- Liam Cole's Slammed (2012)
- Park & Ride: A Max Sohl Sex Tape (2012)
- Cheap Thrills Volume 3 (2011)
- In the Flesh: A Liam Cole Video (2011)
- What I Can't See #3 (2011)
- Breeding Season #2 (2010)
- Raw Underground: Paris (2010)
- Full Tilt: Liam Cole (2010)
- and an additional 3 film titles
History of AHF’s Advocacy for Condom Use in Porn Films in California
Between 2004 and 2010, 23 individuals thought to be connected with the adult industry have tested HIV positive with the most recent infection being identified in October 2010; to date, LA County health officials determined that eight of these people were likely infected as a result of their work in the industry.
These statistics and infections served as a catalyst for AHF to develop an ongoing campaign to require the use of condoms in adult films shot in California. As a result, AHF mounted a high profile advocacy campaign directly targeting the industry, including key players like Vivid Entertainment and Hustler, and it has publicly pressed Los Angeles County political and health officials to comply with the law as far as legal reporting of HIV and STD cases—including those found among performers in the industry—and to require the use of condoms on sets in LA County—as required by Cal/OSHA statute.
In Los Angeles, AHF then spearheaded Ballot Measure B, the so-called condoms in porn measure formally known as the County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, which passed with overwhelming voter support (56% to 44%) in the November 2012 election in Los Angeles County. The measure requires producers of adult films to obtain a public health permit from the County; follow all health and safety laws, including condom use; and pay a permit fee sufficient to cover all enforcement costs.
About AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to nearly 200,000 individuals in 28 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare