---
title: O.C.G.A. § 31-21-1. Approved disinfectant; embalming.
collection: code
id: 31-21-1
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 31-21-1 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-21-1
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-21-1.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-21-1/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t31-(v23)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=da7ded69_0#page=863
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-21.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-20-6.md
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: HEALTH / DEAD BODIES / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 31-21-1. Approved disinfectant; embalming.

(a) An approved disinfectant fluid shall contain not less than 5 percent formaldehyde gas.

(b) As used in this chapter, the term “embalming” means the injection by a licensed embalmer of not less than 10 percent of the weight for bodies of persons dead of communicable diseases, such as smallpox and diphtheria, injected arterially in addition to cavity injection and, in all other cases, not less than 6 percent of the body weight injected arterially in addition to cavity injection.

## History

Ga. L. 1916, p. 77, § 1; Code 1933, § 88-605; Code 1933, § 88-2713, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, p. 499, § 1.

## Cross References

Licenses for funeral directors and embalmers, § 43-18-40 et seq.

## Law Reviews

For article, “A Review of Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, The Court, and Buck v. Bell,” see 26 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 1295, (2010).