LOS ANGELES, USA (AP) — Some of the most prominent purveyors of porn say they’ll start packing up their sex toys and abandoning the nation’s porn capital if authorities carry through with a nascent effort to police adult film sets and order that every actor be outfitted with a condom.

That effort took a serious leap forward Tuesday when the Los Angeles city council voted 9-1 to grant final approval to an ordinance that would deny film permits to producers who do not comply with the condom requirement. The measure now goes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for approval.

Before the measure can take effect, however, the council has called for the creation of a committee of police officials, the city attorney, state health officials and others to determine how it might be enforced.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how in fact they do try to enforce it and who’s going to fund it, and all of the time and effort they’re going to spend,” said Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Los Angeles-based Vivid, one of the largest makers of erotic movies.

“Ultimately I think what they will find is people will just stop shooting in the city of Los Angeles,” added Hirsch. “That’s a given.”

His company, founded in 1984, would be among those that would consider leaving, he said.

Other industry officials condemned the measure as an unneeded exercise in political correctness that cannot be enforced in the city known in the industry as the porn capital of the country. Approximately 90 per cent of US porn films are made in Los Angeles, almost all of them in the city’s San Fernando Valley, said Mark Kernes, senior editor of Adult Video News.

When films, Internet downloads, sex toys and admission to dance clubs are counted, Kernes said, it’s an industry that produces about $8 billion a year in revenue. It has been battered in recent years, however, by the recession and the increased popularity of free Internet porn, and Kernes and others say requiring condoms would further erode business.

They say consumers, particularly those overseas, have made it clear they won’t watch films when the actors use condoms, complaining that it is distracting and ruins the fantasy.

“The only thing that the city could potentially achieve is losing some film permit money and driving some productions away, but you can’t actually compel an industry to create a product that the market doesn’t want,” said Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel, another of the industry’s largest production companies.