LOS ANGELES -- Lawmakers considered how and whether to step in and regulate the porn industry at a hearing in Van Nuys Friday.
The industry was largely shut down temporarily after five actors tested positive for HIV earlier this year.
Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, who chairs the Assembly Labor & Employment Committee, headed the hearing on worker health and safety in the adult entertainment industry.
The committee invited state and local officials, health care professionals and members of the adult-movie world, including an actress, to address health concerns following the recent AIDS-virus scare that shut down the San Fernando Valley-centered industry for a month.
Panels are considering "the appropriate state and local government role in protecting workers' health and safety in the adult film industry and how to address the topic in a manner that best protects both the performers and the general public," said Koretz aide Teresa Stark.
Stark said the meeting -- being held at the Van Nuys State Office Building -- is "the first step in a year-to-2-year-long process" to see if state or local agencies need to step in to regulate the industry.
She said the hearing would address issues such as the constitutionality of censoring what movies can show, and whether to make condom use mandatory.
Among those participating are Vicky Heza, deputy chief of enforcement for Cal-OSHA, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Sharon Mitchell, a former porn actress who now runs the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, and veteran adult-movie actress Nina Hartley.
A voluntary moratorium was called for after an actors tested positive for HIV in mid-April. The moratorium was lifted May 12, about a month earlier than expected.
