Unless you have a fetish for hazmat suits and science lab equipment, you probably won’t be too excited for the newest draft of California Bill AB 640, which is meant to protect the pornography industry from the spread of sexually transmitted infections.
The bill is currently awaiting approval in the senate, and if passed would require that porn stars wear “personal protective equipment” to “prevent contact of an employee’s eye; skin, mucous membranes, or genitals” from bodily fluids, according to the New York Daily News.
Porn stars shooting in Los Angeles County are already legally required to wear condoms while filming intercourse scenes, but this bill would apply that rule to state-wide production and go one step further by forcing actors to wear protective eyewear. Technically, according to a representative from OSHA who spoke to Salon, porn stars are already supposed to wear protective gear, but the rule is hardly enforced. Instead, these draft guidelines “are an attempt to tailor existing workplace-safety rules relating to blood-borne pathogens specifically to the adult industry.”
Porn advocates are outraged by the draft, with one telling Salon it would “basically criminalize the production of porn” in California. Of course, it’s hard to say whether these guidelines would be more strictly enforced than the current ones on the books, but if so, they could have serious consequences for California’s porn economy. This is all probably great news for Orlando, though.