---
title: O.C.G.A. § 31-35-1. Legislative findings.
collection: code
id: 31-35-1
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 31-35-1 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-35-1
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-35-1.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-35-1/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=978
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/31-35.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-34-20.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-35-2.md
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 / VACCINATIONS FOR FIREFIGHTERS, EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS, AND PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 31-35-1. Legislative findings.

The General Assembly finds and declares that, by reason of their employment, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and public safety officers are required to work in the midst of and are subject to exposure to infectious diseases, especially hepatitis B and hepatitis C; that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that 200,000 persons in the United States are infected each year with hepatitis B and of that number 25 percent become ill, 10,000 require hospitalization, and 5,000 die; that it is estimated that there are from 500,000 to 1,000,000 infectious hepatitis B carriers in the United States, of which up to 80 percent of such chronic carriers are unaware that they have hepatitis B and are capable of spreading it; that 3.9 million Americans are infected with chronic hepatitis C; that 350,000 to 450,000 new cases of chronic hepatitis C occur each year; that there is no known cure for hepatitis B or hepatitis C and for firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and public safety officers, there is no way of knowing who among those being helped at an accident, a fire, or any incident are hepatitis B or hepatitis C carriers. The General Assembly further finds and declares that all the aforementioned conditions exist and arise out of or in the course of such employment.

## History

Code 1981, § 31-35-1, enacted by Ga. L. 1989, p. 1780, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 1499, § 2; Ga. L. 2012, p. 775, § 31/HB 942; Ga. L. 2025, p. 1029, § 31(67)/SB 153, effective July 1, 2025.

## Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “the federal Centers” for “the United States Centers” in the first sentence of this Code section.