OAKLAND, Calif.—It may seem like déjà vu all over again, but the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (aka Cal/OSHA) has scheduled an "advisory committee" for Nov. 10 at the Elihu Harris State Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, to discuss the two petitions currently pending before the Cal/OSHA Standards Board; one, Petition 557, filed by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the other, Petition 560, filed by Free Speech Coalition, both relating to changes in the California Health Code Sec. 5193 regarding blood-borne pathogens.
The meeting is a follow-up to the Standards Board meeting of Aug. 18, held in Walnut Creek, Calif., which was attended by at least 50 adult industry members and supporters, and which ended with the Board failing to adopt suggested changes to Sec. 5193, which were styled as a new section of the Health Code, Sec. 5193.1. At that time, it was announced that a new "advisory committee," which apparently would be distinct from the Standards Board itself, would be empaneled to implement further discussion on the dueling petitions, one of which (AHF) advocates adopting the new standard, and the other (FSC) advocates a comprehensive regimen of testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis and voluntary barrier use, among other harm-reduction methods.
Of note: the meeting is scheduled for two days after the presidential election, during which Californians will be voting on Proposition 60, sponsored by AIDS Healthcare President Michael Weinstein, which would not only mandate that condoms and other "barrier protections" be used in adult content production, but would also allow private citizens to sue adult producers and others if they discovered content that did not use the mandated barriers. The proposition would also install Weinstein in a lifetime job as essentially California's "porn czar." The outcome of the Prop 60 vote is likely to figure heavily into the planned meeting.
In fact, the proximity of the election is one of the reasons cited by Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Eric Paul Leue in his letter to Cal/OSHA's Steven C. Smith asking that the date be changed.
Those who have been following this controversy since its beginnings in 2009 may find it strange that Cal/OSHA, which scheduled a number of hearings to discuss the issues in the Los Angeles area, has decided to hold its first hearing of the new committee in Oakland, although the vast majority of adult performers and producers are located in L.A.. Moreover, although there was talk at the August 18 meeting about setting up a new advisory committee, there has been no announcement regarding who the members of that revamped committee are, nor how they were selected. The last "advisory committee" included just one adult industry person, retired actress Anita Cannibal, and how she was selected over the dozens of more qualified adult industry members was not disclosed. (AVN has inquired of Smith, who sent out the meeting notification, regarding the current committee membership.)
According to Smith, "At this advisory meeting stakeholders and the public will have an opportunity to provide input on the petition items and the bloodborne pathogen hazards associated with working in the adult film industry." The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and to last until 3:30 p.m.
