CARNAL NATION

The adult industry recently won a victory in court against the California division of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  AVN reports that Judge Winifred Y. Smith blocked the release of medical records of Patient Zero, an adult performer who tested positive for HIV in June but allegedly continued performing.

CalOSHA had subpoenaed the Adult Industry Medical Foundation (AIM) requesting the information. They also demanded AIM provide them with information about everyone who tested positive for HIV or any other STI within the last five years, along with test dates and contact information for any production companies they worked with in that time.  Although CalOSHA didn’t ask for names specifically, Judge Smith ruled that they could easily be figured out, thus violating patients’ rights to medical confidentiality.

Judge Smith forbade AIM from releasing any information leading to Patient Zero’s identity, including even their gender.  She also prohibited CalOSHA from “compelling or seeking to compel the disclosure of confidential medical records, HIV test information, and personal identifying information of Plaintiff and other patients of AIM without the specific written authorization of such patients.”

The judge also ruled that OSHA’s goal is to investigate employers who may place workers in unsafe situations, and that they violated their authority by making demands of AIM, who does not actually employ any adult performers.  In her ruling, Judge Smith stated that OSHA should be investigating the production companies who allegedly allowed the performer to continue, rather than making demands of the medical agency.  CalOSHA’s tactics, the judge noted, “open a Pandora's box of government inquiry into highly sensitive medical information with only the barest of connections to workplace safety."