ADULT FILM STARS GIVE SAFETY TIPS HEARING FOCUSES ON HIV.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Health officials and adult film stars and producers gave lawmakers some ideas Friday on how to make the adult film industry safer after an HIV outbreak shut down production in April.

The suggestions ranged from the mandatory use of condoms among performers to safe-sex public service announcements at the beginning of X-rated films.

``One idea is the use of special effects, such as using condoms with flesh tones, lighting and the angles of the shot that would protect the worker while maintaining the market value of the films,'' said Dr. Peter Kerndt, director of the sexually transmitted disease program in Los Angeles County's public health agency.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, held the hearing of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee to help him draw up regulations on the $11 billion adult entertainment industry.

Much of the San Fernando Valley's adult-movie business stopped production in April after two actors tested positive for the AIDS virus. A total of five actors eventually tested positive in the HIV outbreak, shutting down the industry for more than a month.

No other cases have been reported since, and industry officials say the outbreak has been contained.

Legislators have proposed bills that would require more frequent and stringent testing of performers, but some fear that would drive the productions underground or to other states and countries that aren't regulated.

Speakers told Koretz that since the outbreak garnered ``salacious media coverage worldwide'' more and more workers are using condoms and the industry is taking steps to protect its workers and the public from another outbreak.

``This industry is going more and more condom-only day by day,'' said Sharon Mitchell, founder of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation in Sherman Oaks, which tests about 1,200 workers a month and has detected 16 cases of HIV since its founding in 1998.

Each year, about 1,500 new HIV cases are reported countywide in the general population, a rate industry officials said is far higher than in the sex film industry.

Kat Sunlove, a lobbyist for the industry which she said employs 50,000 workers and generates $31 million a year in state sales taxes, said mandatory condom use would force many workers into the underground ``rogue industry'' where performers would not be tested and be in more danger of contracting HIV.

But county public health officer Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding said the performers, most of whom are 18 to 21 years old, face a life-threatening disease that is largely preventable with the use of condoms.

``Just as we would not allow a construction worker to be on a job site without a hard hat, we should not allow adult film workers to work without condoms.''

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com