Porn stars left without work amid syphilis outbreak – media
October 03, 2022
An STD outbreak in Europe has led to calls for a British adult film stars’ union
A syphilis outbreak in Europe may finally convince UK porn stars to unite – professionally speaking – as fear of catching the bug due to the industry's lax safety standards has convinced some to stop work altogether, porn actress-turned-sex educator Lianne Young told the Independent this week.
Young spoke to eight adult film performers who had walked off the job due to concerns about syphilis, she said, pointing out that they were “losing a lot of money” and would be better able to make their concerns felt if they negotiated as a collective. “People have been asking for a union for a couple of years now,” she said. She added that she had been in contact with Alana Evans, president of US union the Adult Performance Artists Guild, about setting up something similar in the UK.
A union could help protect professional actors from sloppy testing requirements for sexually transmitted diseases. American and EU porn stars get tested weekly, or “at worst every 14 days,” while UK actors are responsible for testing themselves once every 28 days. A union could also protect them from non-professional actors who refuse to miss out on a big payday just because they’re infected.
While it’s unclear how widespread the latter phenomenon actually is, Young insisted it “absolutely worries” her, noting that “it can spread very fast.”
“Porn stars are real human beings,” she told the Independent, declaring “there needs to be a union to be a bridge to connect up with Public Health England and the police.” She has been in touch with that agency regarding outbreak reports, but as foreign organizations have found, reporting doesn't go far enough.
PASS, a database of sexual health certificates for porn stars working in the US, was “informed of multiple positive syphilis tests” among European stars, but it has been unable to do anything about it beyond posting a warning to global industry resource Xbiz last week. STD testing in Europe is “not standardized,” and PASS does not officially operate on the continent, so there is no way for the organization to “know the full extent of the exposures or additional cases,” or to impose a production hold if an actor was found to be infected.
However, a porn stars’ union isn’t a guarantee against STD outbreaks, as the US Centers for Disease Control last month revealed that syphilis cases jumped 26% last year.
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