2021 Georgia Code
Title 34 - Labor and Industrial Relations
Chapter 9 - Workers' Compensation
Article 8 - Compensation for Occupational Disease
Part 1 - General Provisions
§ 34-9-280. Definitions

As used in this article, the term:

1. "Disablement" means the event of an employee becoming actually disabled to work, as provided in Code Sections 34-9-261, 34-9-262, and 34-9-263, because of occupational disease.
2. "Occupational disease" means those diseases which arise 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 satisfaction of the State Board of Workers' Compensation all of the following:
   1. A direct causal connection between the conditions under which the work is performed and the disease;
   2. That the disease followed as a natural incident of exposure by reason of the employment;
   3. That the disease is not of a character to which the employee may have had substantial exposure outside of the employment;
   4. That the disease is not an ordinary disease of life to which the general public is exposed;
   5. That the disease must appear to have had its origin in a risk connected with the employment and to have flowed from that source as a natural consequence.

      For the purposes of this paragraph, partial loss of hearing due to noise shall not be considered an occupational disease. Psychiatric and psychological problems and heart and vascular diseases shall not be considered occupational diseases, except where they arise from a separate occupational disease.

(Code 1933, §§ 114-802, 114-803, 114-812, enacted by Ga. L. 1946, p. 103; Ga. L. 1971, p. 895, § 3; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 34; Ga. L. 1982, p. 2485, §§ 4, 5, 8; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1474, § 1.)

- Ga. L. 1987, p. 1474, § 17, not codified by the General Assembly, provided that that Act would apply to any occupational disease not previously diagnosed before July 1, 1987.

- For article, "Occupational Diseases Under the Georgia Workmen's Compensation Act," see 8 Mercer L. Rev. 333 (1957). For comment, "Georgia's Mental Block in Workers' Compensation," see 36 Mercer L. Rev. 971 (1985).

ANALYSIS

• General Consideration
• Disablement
• Occupational Disease
• Pleading and Practice

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Manner of proof required for compensation for injury caused by contact with poisons.

- Unless it can be shown a person is allergic to one of the statutorily designated poisons in this section, and one of them did in fact cause an allergic reaction, compensation for disease or discomfort from an allergy should not be allowed. 1969 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 69-425.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 82 Am. Jur. 2d, Workers' Compensation, § 311 et seq.

- 30 C.J.S. Employers' Liability for Injuries to Employees, § 5.

99 C.J.S., Workers' Compensation, § 356 et seq.

- Necessity and sufficiency of evidence that disease contracted by applicant for workmen's compensation is attributable to employment, 20 A.L.R. 4; 73 A.L.R. 488.

Workmen's compensation: injury from fumes or gases as accident or occupational disease, 90 A.L.R. 619.

Disease resulting from insanitary conditions not peculiar to kind of employment as occupational disease within Workmen's Compensation Act, 105 A.L.R. 1411.

Workmen's compensation: illness or injury from contaminated water, 141 A.L.R. 1490.

Mental incapacity or disease as constituting total or permanent disability within insurance coverage, 22 A.L.R.3d 1000.

Admissibility of opinion evidence as to employability on issue of disability in health and accident insurance and workers' compensation cases, 89 A.L.R.3d 783.

Mental disorders as compensable under Workmen's Compensation Acts, 97 A.L.R.3d 161.

Right to workers' compensation for physical injury or illness suffered by claimant as result of sudden mental stimuli - Right to compensation under particular statutory provisions and requisites of, and factors affecting, compensability, 109 A.L.R.5th 161.

What constitutes, and remedies for, misuse of easement, 111 A.L.R.5th 313.

Right to workers' compensation for physical injury or illness suffered by claimant as result of nonsudden mental stimuli - Compensability of particular physical injuries or illnesses, 112 A.L.R.5th 509.