State occupational health specialists were considering the move in an effort to reduce the risk of HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases. It needed four votes to pass.
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Bernstein said that the board will consider a new worker-safety measure for the porn industry.
It seems that board members were influenced by porn industry representatives, who in a public hearing in Oakland, California, argued on adopting condom measure.
But the Californian board couldn’t get up enough votes to force adult video stars into wearing a Johnnie.
Porn executives say their own requirement that actors be tested every 14 days for sexually transmitted diseases provides adequate protection.
Scores of porn actors, writers, directors and producers are imploring state officials not to make them use condoms in films, saying it will criminalize and perhaps even destroy their multibillion-dollar industry. About 100 adult-film performers spoke during a almost six-hour hearing held by the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board in Oakland, each one testifying they were against the proposed regulations because they went too far.
The adult entertainment industry reportedly argued that a large segment of their audience would lose interest in films that showed actors with condoms. They also expressed concerns that the requirement to avoid blood-borne pathogens could mean the use of other protective paraphernalia – such as goggles and dental dams – and added that no one would want to see adult films with such equipment.
Such a requirement would spell the end of many porn film scenes, they said.
“I ask you not to approve this policy that will endanger me and my colleagues”, Holloway said.
For years, Weinstein has pushed for the workplace to adopt safety rules aimed specifically at an industry such as this.
Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a non-profit that has been pushing for the new rules since 2009, said his organisation was disappointed by Thursday’s decision and planned to file a new petition with the Standards Board.
Producers would have also been required to pay for medical visits, treatments and other health-care costs for their performers.
Among the leading campaigners is former porn actor Derrick Burts who was infected with HIV while making a porn film, despite following all the exiting safety rules.
Condoms are required for films made in Los Angeles County, under an AIDS Healthcare Foundation-sponsored ordinance that voters adopted in 2012, and foundation officials maintain that under existing Cal/OSHA workplace safety laws it is clearly implied they are also required.
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Meantime, the group has placed a similar measure on the statewide ballot for November.
