CALIFORNIA: State OSHA Fines Gay Porn Studio For Allowing Barebacking

The California division of OSHA has fined the gay porn studio Treasure Island Media for workplace practices that exposed employees to potentially infectious agents such as semen. The company is appealing the fines, which total over $21,000 for three separate citations. Lyla Katz reports at Xbiz:

“On Nov. 5, 2009, Treasure Island Media had failed to write or otherwise establish, implement and maintain an effective exposure control plan,” the 23-page investigation report said. “Employees were exposed to semen and other potentially infectious materials, due to work activities during filming and set cleaning.” The second serious citation said, “Treasure Island Media does not observe universal precautions during the production of their films. They have not instituted engineering and work practices controls to eliminate or minimize contact with blood and semen, including, but not limited to, the use of barrier protection such as condoms.”

Treasure Island Media’s general manager Matt Mason told XBIZ that the company has cooperated with the Cal/OSHA investigation and administrative process. “We have appealed the citations and participated in the informal conference process and expect to take the matter to a hearing in 2011 with an administrative law judge,” Mason said. Treasure Island Media has recently signed HIV-positive performer James Roscoe and has been promoting scenes with other HIV-positive performers.

A spokesman for CAL/OSHA said the fines did not arise from the studio’s practice of employing HIV-positive performers. “Anybody may be infected, therefore you have to treat everybody’s blood and other potential infectious materials [such as semen] as though it can be infectious.”