Mike AI
04-22-2004, 10:29 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/national...print&position= (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/national/22PORN.html?ei=5062&en=c40f98add04620dc&ex=1083211200&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=)
April 22, 2004
Officers Get List of Names of Actors in Sex Films
By NICK MADIGAN
OS ANGELES, April 21 — Investigators for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services obtained on Wednesday a list of the legal names of 53 adult-movie actors who were known to have had sexual contact with two actors infected with the AIDS virus or with someone else who had sex with the two.
The investigators obtained the list in a visit to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley that tests 1,200 adult-film performers a month for sexually transmitted diseases.
Health Department officials said the list of legal names, as opposed to stage names, would make it easier to track down both the actors and anyone outside the industry with whom they might have had sex.
Sharon Mitchell, the director of the clinic, which is run by the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, said she had handed over the names only at the insistence of a pair of investigators.
"We're not happy about this," said Dr. Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who holds a master's degree in public health and a Ph.D. in human sexuality. "The legal names of our talent have always been held in the strictest confidentiality and privacy. We've been persuaded to cooperate."
Dr. Mitchell acknowledged that there were potential benefits to the county's involvement. "The upside," she said, "is that we will know once and for all the bugaboo of, `Did this reach the general population or not?' "
When adult-movie producers learned last week that two actors were infected, most companies in the local industry agreed to halt filming for 60 days so performers who worked with them could be tested again for exposure to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
Since then, public health officials say they have been trying to find better ways to monitor and regulate the industry.
On Tuesday, the county's public health director, Jonathan E. Fielding, wrote Dr. Mitchell a letter saying his department was "initiating an official investigation of this outbreak" to limit further spread of disease.
On the same day, Dr. Fielding wrote to Len Welch, acting chief of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration in San Francisco, requesting a state investigation into an adult-film company in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, where the two infected actors, Darren James and Lara Roxx, "performed high-risk sexual acts" and apparently became infected as a result.
Dr. Fielding said the most important task was finding people outside the adult-movie industry who might have contracted the H.I.V. virus from those inside it. "We want to make sure they're all covered, and counseled," he said.
Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said her agency could not investigate cases of potential exposure to H.I.V. unless the workers in question were employed by a production company. Independent contractors and freelancers, which most actors are, would not come under the agency's jurisdiction.
The agency could step in more easily, Ms. Gard said, if it can be shown that companies have violated state laws that cover injury and illness prevention or if precautions regarding bloodborne pathogens can be proved inadequate.
The California Department of Health Services might have to become involved, she said.
"It's unclear at this point what each agency is going to be able to do," Ms. Gard said. "We're really at Square 1."
The focus on the San Fernando Valley's pornography industry, which is said to generate several billion dollars a year, comes on the heels of renewed efforts to regulate and monitor bathhouses where men meet to have sex, often anonymously. County officials were aghast last month when a study financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 11 percent of customers at two bathhouses in Los Angeles tested positive for H.I.V. Officials are considering requiring testing at bathhouses for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Dr. Fielding said that in a few weeks he would submit to the county's board of supervisors new recommendations for regulating bathhouses and sex clubs.
Dr. Mitchell and some industry leaders plan a news conference on Thursday to explain their position on the possibility that their industry could be subject to far greater scrutiny than before.
April 22, 2004
Officers Get List of Names of Actors in Sex Films
By NICK MADIGAN
OS ANGELES, April 21 — Investigators for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services obtained on Wednesday a list of the legal names of 53 adult-movie actors who were known to have had sexual contact with two actors infected with the AIDS virus or with someone else who had sex with the two.
The investigators obtained the list in a visit to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley that tests 1,200 adult-film performers a month for sexually transmitted diseases.
Health Department officials said the list of legal names, as opposed to stage names, would make it easier to track down both the actors and anyone outside the industry with whom they might have had sex.
Sharon Mitchell, the director of the clinic, which is run by the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, said she had handed over the names only at the insistence of a pair of investigators.
"We're not happy about this," said Dr. Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who holds a master's degree in public health and a Ph.D. in human sexuality. "The legal names of our talent have always been held in the strictest confidentiality and privacy. We've been persuaded to cooperate."
Dr. Mitchell acknowledged that there were potential benefits to the county's involvement. "The upside," she said, "is that we will know once and for all the bugaboo of, `Did this reach the general population or not?' "
When adult-movie producers learned last week that two actors were infected, most companies in the local industry agreed to halt filming for 60 days so performers who worked with them could be tested again for exposure to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.
Since then, public health officials say they have been trying to find better ways to monitor and regulate the industry.
On Tuesday, the county's public health director, Jonathan E. Fielding, wrote Dr. Mitchell a letter saying his department was "initiating an official investigation of this outbreak" to limit further spread of disease.
On the same day, Dr. Fielding wrote to Len Welch, acting chief of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration in San Francisco, requesting a state investigation into an adult-film company in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, where the two infected actors, Darren James and Lara Roxx, "performed high-risk sexual acts" and apparently became infected as a result.
Dr. Fielding said the most important task was finding people outside the adult-movie industry who might have contracted the H.I.V. virus from those inside it. "We want to make sure they're all covered, and counseled," he said.
Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said her agency could not investigate cases of potential exposure to H.I.V. unless the workers in question were employed by a production company. Independent contractors and freelancers, which most actors are, would not come under the agency's jurisdiction.
The agency could step in more easily, Ms. Gard said, if it can be shown that companies have violated state laws that cover injury and illness prevention or if precautions regarding bloodborne pathogens can be proved inadequate.
The California Department of Health Services might have to become involved, she said.
"It's unclear at this point what each agency is going to be able to do," Ms. Gard said. "We're really at Square 1."
The focus on the San Fernando Valley's pornography industry, which is said to generate several billion dollars a year, comes on the heels of renewed efforts to regulate and monitor bathhouses where men meet to have sex, often anonymously. County officials were aghast last month when a study financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 11 percent of customers at two bathhouses in Los Angeles tested positive for H.I.V. Officials are considering requiring testing at bathhouses for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Dr. Fielding said that in a few weeks he would submit to the county's board of supervisors new recommendations for regulating bathhouses and sex clubs.
Dr. Mitchell and some industry leaders plan a news conference on Thursday to explain their position on the possibility that their industry could be subject to far greater scrutiny than before.