California Condom Initiative: On-Set Duties, LA County, Penalties

California’s condom law for adult film production requires producers to provide condoms and require their use during any vaginal or anal intercourse filmed on set. The obligation sits on the production company as an employer under the state’s workplace safety rules, not on the performers. There is no standalone adult-film statute doing this work. Instead, Cal/OSHA treats semen and vaginal secretions as potentially infectious materials under the general Bloodborne Pathogens standard, which brings adult film production inside the same regulatory system that covers hospitals and dental offices.

What Producers Must Do on Set

The governing rule is California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 5193.¹ It applies to every workplace where employees have reasonably anticipated contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials, and Cal/OSHA has issued specific policy guidance confirming the standard covers adult film production.² The underlying principle, called universal precautions, is that all such fluids must be treated as if they carry HIV, Hepatitis B, or Hepatitis C.³

In practice, that produces four concrete obligations for a production company.

Provide Condoms and Require Their Use

The producer must use engineering and work practice controls to minimize performer exposure to infectious materials.¹ On an adult film set, barrier protection during intercourse is the primary control Cal/OSHA expects. The producer cannot leave this up to the performers or treat it as a preference. Procedures must also be conducted in a way that minimizes splashing or spraying of potentially infectious materials.

Maintain a Written Exposure Control Plan

Every production company must keep a written Exposure Control Plan that identifies which job tasks involve exposure, describes the specific controls the company uses (including condom requirements), lays out the schedule for implementing each element of the standard, and spells out what happens if an exposure incident occurs.¹ Inspectors ask to see it. A missing or incomplete plan is its own citable violation.

Offer the Hepatitis B Vaccine

Producers must offer the Hepatitis B vaccine series at no cost to any performer or crew member with occupational exposure, within 10 working days of their initial assignment to exposed duties. A performer who declines can change their mind later, and the employer must still provide the vaccine at no cost so long as the exposure continues.

Provide Post-Exposure Evaluation

When something goes wrong on set, such as a broken condom, the producer must immediately provide the exposed performer with a confidential medical evaluation.¹ That evaluation must document how the exposure happened, identify and test the source individual where feasible and consented to, collect and test the exposed employee’s blood for HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C, and provide post-exposure preventive treatment when medically indicated. The blood sample must be preserved for at least 90 days even if the employee initially declines HIV testing.

Extra Rules for Filming in Los Angeles County

If the shoot is in Los Angeles County, Measure B adds another layer. Voters passed it in November 2012, and it requires any adult film producer operating in the county to obtain a public health permit before filming.⁴ The permit lasts two years and must include language confirming the producer will comply with the Bloodborne Pathogens standard, including condom use. Producers must also post a sign at every filming location, in at least 36-point type, notifying performers that condoms are required during all vaginal or anal intercourse on the production.

Measure B penalties stack on top of anything Cal/OSHA might assess. The county health department can impose civil fines of up to $500 per violation. Filming without a valid permit, or violating any provision of the ordinance, is also a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,000 in fines, up to six months in jail, or both.⁴ A producer shooting in LA County without condoms can face Measure B penalties and Cal/OSHA penalties at the same time.

Penalties and Enforcement

Cal/OSHA classifies violations by severity. A failure to provide barrier protection is typically treated as a “serious” violation because it exposes workers to a recognized hazard capable of causing significant harm. The maximum penalty for a serious violation is $25,000.⁵

If the agency finds the violation was willful, meaning the producer intentionally disregarded the law, or that it is a repeat offense, the numbers climb. The maximum for a willful or repeat violation is $162,851, with a minimum of $11,632 for willful violations.⁵ Those figures adjust each January based on the Consumer Price Index. The serious-violation cap of $25,000 has remained unchanged through recent cycles.

Cal/OSHA also has authority under California Labor Code Sections 6325 through 6327 to issue an Order Prohibiting Use when an imminent hazard exists, which effectively halts production until the hazard is fixed.⁶ A producer who receives a citation has 15 working days to appeal to the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board.⁷

Enforcement has been uneven. A review of federal OSHA inspection data identified roughly 34 inspections of businesses in the motion picture production classification code that likely involved adult film companies between 2009 and 2019, with the most recent inspection occurring in 2015.⁸ Adult film production is mobile, shoots are short, and sets are often private locations the agency does not know about in advance. California voters rejected Proposition 60 in 2016, which would have required producer notification and licensing, so Cal/OSHA still has no automatic way to find out when or where a production is happening.⁹ The baseline Section 5193 obligations were not changed by that vote; they remain in force.

Why Performer Classification Matters

The whole framework rests on the employer-employee relationship. If a performer were a genuine independent contractor rather than an employee, the Bloodborne Pathogens standard would not reach the production company the same way. California’s ABC test, codified through Assembly Bill 5, presumes workers are employees unless the hiring entity can prove all three conditions: the worker is free from the company’s control and direction, performs work outside the company’s usual business, and is independently established in that trade. A performer working on a production company’s set, performing the core activity the company exists to produce, is extremely difficult to classify as a contractor under that test. For most productions, performers are employees and the full workplace safety law applies.

Industry Testing Is Not a Substitute

The adult industry operates a voluntary health screening system called PASS (Performer Availability Screening Services), which clears performers through a panel of STI tests valid for 14 days and stores only cleared-or-not-cleared status in its database. When a potential infection risk is detected in the performer pool, PASS can shut its database and trigger an industry-wide production hold.

PASS is private industry practice, not a legal alternative to the condom requirement. A producer who relies on PASS testing and skips condoms is still in violation of Section 5193. The Cal/OSHA obligation to provide barrier protection, maintain the written plan, offer the Hepatitis B vaccine, and handle post-exposure follow-up applies regardless of what testing the performers have cleared.

1
Department of Industrial Relations. California Code of Regulations Title 8 Section 5193 – Bloodborne Pathogens
2
Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Occupational Safety and Health Policy and Procedures Manual P&P C-14
3
Department of Industrial Relations. Frequently Asked Questions About the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard
4
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act
5
Department of Industrial Relations. Cal/OSHA Increases Civil Penalty Amounts for 2025
6
Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Occupational Safety and Health Policy and Procedures Manual – Order Prohibiting Use
7
Occupational Safety & Health Appeals Board. Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board – Filing an Appeal
8
Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board. Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board Staff Evaluation
9
Legislative Analyst’s Office. Proposition 60 – Ballot Analysis