Workplace Toxic Exposure in Georgia: Occupational Disease and Third-Party Claims

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A disease that follows years of workplace exposure can support two different claims in Georgia: a workers’ compensation claim for an occupational disease, and a tort claim against the companies that made the substance. Both run into the same practical problem, which is that the illness can appear long after the exposure, and some of Georgia’s deadlines are written with that delay in mind.

When the Disease Appears Years Later

MedlinePlus describes the pattern with asbestos: “Lung diseases associated with asbestos usually develop over many years. People who become ill from asbestos are usually exposed on the job over long periods of time.” Breathing high levels over a long period can lead to asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer.

Two of Georgia’s deadlines are keyed to when the worker knew of the disease or its impairment, not only to the date of exposure. A workers’ compensation claim for disablement from an occupational disease must be filed “within one year after the date the employee knew or, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, should have known of the disablement and its relationship to the employment,” and “in no event” more than “seven years after the last injurious exposure to the hazard of such disease in such employment” (OCGA 34-9-281(b)(2)). For an asbestos or silica tort claim, “the limitations period shall not begin to run until the exposed person … obtains, or through the exercise of reasonable diligence should have obtained, prima-facie evidence of physical impairment” as defined in OCGA 51-14-3, for a claim not barred as of May 1, 2007 (OCGA 51-14-5).

Exposure Limits at Work

Federal workplace rules set limits on airborne contaminants. For a substance in Table Z-1 whose limit is not a ceiling value, an employee’s exposure “shall not exceed the 8-hour Time Weighted Average given for that substance in any 8-hour work shift of a 40-hour work week” (29 CFR 1910.1000(a)(2)). To comply, “administrative or engineering controls must first be determined and implemented whenever feasible,” and where those controls cannot achieve full compliance, “protective equipment or any other protective measures shall be used to keep the exposure of employees to air contaminants within the limits prescribed” (29 CFR 1910.1000(e)).

Occupational Disease Under Workers’ Compensation

An “occupational disease” is one that arises “out of and in the course of the particular trade, occupation, process, or employment in which the employee is exposed to such disease,” provided the employee or the employee’s dependents first prove to the State Board of Workers’ Compensation five things: a direct causal connection between the conditions under which the work is performed and the disease; that the disease followed as a natural incident of exposure by reason of the employment; that it is not of a character to which the employee may have had substantial exposure outside of the employment; that it is not an ordinary disease of life to which the general public is exposed; and that it appears to have had its origin in a risk connected with the employment and to have flowed from that source as a natural consequence (OCGA 34-9-280(2)).

Claims Against the Makers of the Substances

The workers’ compensation chapter leaves an employee free to sue a third-party tort-feasor other than those it lists (OCGA 34-9-11(a)), and a manufacturer of personal property sold as new is liable in tort under OCGA 51-1-11(b)(1). Actions under that provision are barred more than ten years after the product’s first sale for use or consumption (OCGA 51-1-11(b)(2)). Subsection (c) applies that limit to negligence claims, with exceptions that include an action for injuries arising from a manufacturer’s negligence in manufacturing products that cause a disease or birth defect (OCGA 51-1-11(c)).

In PTI Royston, LLC v. Eubanks, 360 Ga. App. 263 (2021), a plaintiff alleged that daily use of talc powder from 1963 to 2016 caused the plaintiff’s ovarian cancer through asbestos in the talc. The Court of Appeals held that the phrase “notwithstanding any other provision of law” in OCGA 51-14-5 “refers to the statute of limitation, and does not bar the application of the statute of repose to asbestos claims,” and observed that “[n]othing in OCGA § 51-1-11 (b) imposes a statute of repose on their claims for negligence; it bars only the claims raised under a theory of strict liability.”

The Supreme Court of Georgia addressed repeated purchases in Burroughs v. Strength of Nature Global, LLC, Nos. S24G1387, S24G1388 (Ga. Oct. 15, 2025), a hair-relaxer case with use from 1995 to 2014. The Court held that “OCGA § 51-1-11(b)(2) creates a ten-year statute of repose that begins to run on each sale of a unit as new to an intended end user,” so that the statute “does not bar a claim for strict product liability merely because a plaintiff alleges that one or more of the units in question were sold to an intended end user more than ten years before she brought the action.” The plaintiff would still have to prove that the units sold within ten years caused the injury. The decision did not involve a workplace.

More Than One Source of Exposure

Where several companies’ products contributed to an exposure, a plaintiff need show only that a defendant’s conduct was a contributing factor, not a substantial one. In John Crane, Inc. v. Jones, 278 Ga. 747 (2004), a worker alleged contracting mesothelioma from occupational exposure to asbestos dust in products made by eight companies. The defendant argued that the jury should have been told the plaintiff could recover only if exposure to its products was a “substantial contributing factor.” The Supreme Court of Georgia held that “requiring that its contribution to the resulting injury be ‘substantial’ is not in accord with the longstanding law of Georgia,” and approved a charge that the defendant’s conduct had to be “a contributing factor” in bringing about the plaintiff’s damages.

Exposure Carried Home

A manufacturer owed no duty to warn a family member exposed through a worker’s clothing, while that family member’s design-defect claim remained subject to the risk-utility test. In CertainTeed Corp. v. Fletcher, 300 Ga. 327 (2016), a woman diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, which the woman attributed to years of laundering the woman’s father’s asbestos-dust-covered work clothing, sued the manufacturer of the asbestos-laden water pipes the father had worked with. The Supreme Court held that “CertainTeed owed no duty to warn Fletcher regarding the dangers of the asbestos dust,” reasoning that “the mechanism and scope of such warnings would be endless,” and it agreed with the Court of Appeals that the design defect claim is governed by the risk-utility test.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which conditions are excluded from “occupational disease”?
Partial loss of hearing due to noise “shall not be considered an occupational disease.” Psychiatric and psychological problems and heart and vascular diseases are also excluded, “except where they arise from a separate occupational disease” (OCGA 34-9-280(2)).

Is there a special compensation deadline for asbestosis or mesothelioma?
Yes. An employee with asbestosis or mesothelioma related to asbestos exposure “shall have one year from the date of first disablement after diagnosis of such disease to file a claim for disablement” (OCGA 34-9-281(b)(2)).

Does smoking change the medical risk from asbestos?
MedlinePlus states that “[s]moking cigarettes increases the risk.”

  • MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine), “Asbestos” (last updated Sept. 27, 2024)
  • 29 CFR 1910.1000(a)(2), (e)
  • OCGA 34-9-280(2); OCGA 34-9-281(b)(2); OCGA 34-9-11(a)
  • OCGA 51-1-11(b)(1), (2), (c); OCGA 51-14-5
  • PTI Royston, LLC v. Eubanks, 360 Ga. App. 263 (2021)
  • Burroughs v. Strength of Nature Global, LLC, Nos. S24G1387, S24G1388 (Ga. Oct. 15, 2025)
  • John Crane, Inc. v. Jones, 278 Ga. 747 (2004)
  • CertainTeed Corp. v. Fletcher, 300 Ga. 327 (2016)

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about workplace exposure claims under Georgia law. It is not legal or medical advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether a worker can recover, from whom, and by what deadline depends on the disease, the exposure, and the specific facts. A worker with a possible occupational disease should seek medical care and consult a licensed Georgia attorney promptly about the particular situation.

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