from www.examiner.com – In the latest shots fired in the battle over mandating condom use on porn film sets in California, Larry Flynt’s LFP Video Group / Hustler Video is appealing three citations with fines of $4,725 each that it received from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) last month.

News of the citations, which include violations of the state’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program and the Bloodborne Pathogens Program, was widely reported last week and was celebrated by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the major organization lobbying for enforcement.

The citations against LFP Video LLC were incurred after Cal/OSHA’s inspection of a film set in Canoga Park, CA on September 14, 2010 were issued on March 9 and are the first high-profile citations announced since the Los Angeles City Council voted in February to instruct the city attorney to begin invetsigating mandatory condom use on porn sets as a condition of production companies applying to receive official film permits.

Via XBIZ.com:

Hustler Video attorneys have indicated to Cal/OSHA that the company plans to appeal recent health citations stemming from an investigation into the company that found it violated various workplace safety regulations.

Cal/OSHA officials told XBIZ any company that is cited has an opportunity to challenge the findings through various hearings until a final decision is made.

“It can be a long process,” said Krisann Chasarik, a spokesperson at the California Department of Industrial Relations. She added that one possible outcome of an appeal can be a reduction in the citation amount but rarely are the citations completely dismissed.

Flynt has long been outspoken on the topic, claiming that consumers aren’t interested in porn with condoms. The Free Speech Coalition and other adult industry groups have also been fighting mandatory condom enforcement. In June 2010 the American Medical Association House of Delegates voted to support mandatory condom use. Many performers, like Bree Olson, say they prefer not to use them on set even as they advocate for them in private use, and prefer to use the industry’s own system of mandatory but self-regulated STD testing.
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In a news release last week, AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein wrote,

“Larry Flynt and his LFP Video Group join the ranks of a growing list of adult film producers and distributers cited by Cal/OSHA for failing to properly follow workplace safety regulations on their adult film sets with regard to condom use and other safety precautions. One area Flynt was cited and fined for under Cal/OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Program, Personal Protective Equipment—i.e. for failing to use condoms or other barrier protection. We thank Cal/OSHA officials for stepping up to enforce state regulations designed to protect the workplace safety of adult film workers by citing and fining LFP and other adult film producers in California.”