Porn Industry Shuts Down Amid Syphilis Contamination Fears
The porn world has been rocked by the third STI scare in as many years, prompting the industry's trade group to call for a halt in production until all adult film actors are tested.
The porn news site XBIZ reported last week that an unidentified male performer who was diagnosed last month with syphilis — a potentially fatal STI — hid the information using doctored paperwork and kept working, exposing others to the disease.
As many as five syphilis cases have been reported since, according to the Los Angeles County's Public Health Department.
The Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry trade group, issued a moratorium announcement on Saturday and ordered all adult actors — over 1,000 — to get tested.
Proponents of a measure to expand the Los Angeles City Council's ordinance requiring condom use at porn shoots to the entire county hope the syphilis scare will convince voters to approve the mandate in November.
"We don't settle for that in food preparation. We don't settle for that in factories," said Tom Myers of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "I can't think of any other [workplace] where there's an acceptable level of transmissible diseases as a normal course of business."
