Occupational Safety

Despite porn industry assurances that an adult film actress' recent positive HIV test is the first since a 2004 outbreak shut down production for a month, Los Angeles County health officials said Thursday that at least 16 additional unpublicized cases of HIV have been confirmed in adult film performers. The newly released data bring the number of HIV cases in porn performers in the last five years to 22, including the case disclosed this week.

It was just another work day for Rafael Jimenez, a veteran tree trimmer in his 24th year on the job. But as he stuffed branches from a Chinese elm tree into a wood chipper that sunny day in April 2008, his right hand became entangled in the branches and Jimenez found himself being jerked toward the steel knives. The machine, which devours a 20-inch branch in a second, consumed nearly his entire body.

As prominent AIDS advocates called Thursday for Los Angeles County officials to require condoms on porn sets or shut down production, more questions arose about why the Public Health Department has not investigated 18 HIV cases reported in the last five years by the clinic that serves the adult film industry. "L.A.

A recently hired plumber was sent into the bowels of the Orleans hotel and casino last year to unplug a sewer pipe in a large grease trap -- an assignment that would be his last. The hotel had no permit or training program to allow plumber Richard Luzier to enter a confined space where he might inhale poisonous sewer gas. He had no breathing apparatus or emergency rescue harness -- all routine precautions. Luzier fell 12 feet and landed face down in fatty sewage.

Two divers were killed Wednesday as they inspected equipment at a Central California pumping plant that is part of the state aqueduct system. The two, both experienced divers, were performing a routine inspection of the Dos Amigos Plant, which is 10 miles south of Los Banos, next to Interstate 5, when they apparently drowned. "A million and one things can go wrong," said Merced County Sheriff's Department spokesman Paul Barile. "You can dive 100 times and nothing will happen.

For the last six weeks, this desolate desert hideaway known for its date trees and triple-digit summers has been awash with Hollywood celebrities, Olympic-caliber athletes and software executives in town for one of the country's premier equestrian events.

A San Fernando Valley nail polish maker that is a major supplier to salons across the country said that it had removed the chemical toluene from its products. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics had asked OPI Products Inc. to remove toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate, or DBP, from its products. In a letter to an activist group, OPI also said it had stopped using DBP and was looking for alternatives to formaldehyde.

Chinese authorities acknowledged Thursday that not enough has been done to improve their country's dismal work safety record, especially in the deadly coal mining industry. Despite repeated government crackdowns, including a recent campaign that singled out 133 officials for punishment, accidents continue to soar due to illegal production and lax law enforcement.

Hundreds of police in Torreon, Mexico, refused to work for a second day, demanding more pay and protection from increased attacks by drug cartel hit men. "Police have been murdered, with limbs cut off and bodies burned. What we want is more forces with the right equipment, working bulletproof vests and a decent salary and pension," said patrolman Oscar Ramirez at the deserted police headquarters in the city of about 500,000.

On the last morning of her life, 26-year-old Piper Inness Cameron was doing exactly what she had always wanted to do. She was working on the deck of a tugboat and counting the days until she, like her father, would be piloting one. There were 41 to go. Then, at 11 a.m. Feb. 20 while moving through Santa Monica Bay about two miles off Marina del Rey, something went wrong. A line linking the tug and the barge it was towing suddenly struck Cameron and slammed her into a railing.