South Carolina Asbestos Laws: Licensing, Lawsuits, and Penalties

South Carolina asbestos laws combine state regulation under the Department of Environmental Services with federal Clean Air Act and OSHA standards, and they give people who develop asbestos-related diseases several routes to compensation. Property owners, contractors, landlords, and employers all carry duties around identifying and safely removing asbestos-containing materials. Anyone diagnosed with an asbestos disease can pursue a civil lawsuit, workers’ compensation, or a bankruptcy trust fund claim, but only if specific medical and timing requirements are met.

Which Buildings and Owners Are Covered

The state’s core rule is Regulation 61-86.1, the Standards of Performance for Asbestos Projects, enforced by the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES).¹ SCDES took over asbestos enforcement from DHEC in July 2024 after that agency was restructured.²

Federal NESHAP work-practice rules and their state counterpart apply to institutional, commercial, public, industrial, and residential structures, but exclude residential buildings with four or fewer dwelling units.³¹ Multi-unit residential complexes above that threshold are covered.

A homeowner renovating a single-family house is not required to hire a licensed abatement professional for their own work. Disposal rules still apply: asbestos waste has to go to a landfill approved to accept it, and storing it off-site without a temporary storage license from SCDES is prohibited.⁴ If a homeowner hires a contractor, the contractor must follow the same handling and removal procedures required on commercial jobs.

Inspection Required Before Renovation or Demolition

Before starting renovation or demolition at a covered facility, the owner must have an asbestos inspection performed by a licensed building inspector or management planner. The inspection has to cover every part of the building the work will affect, and in multi-unit buildings each separate room in each affected area must be inspected individually.¹

The rule has no 1980 age cutoff. Every covered facility needs an inspection regardless of when it was built. An inspection stays valid for three years; after that, a licensed inspector has to verify and confirm the earlier results before work resumes.¹

Inspectors pull samples and send them to accredited labs. Any material over one percent asbestos by weight qualifies as asbestos-containing material and must be removed or encapsulated before construction proceeds. There is one alternative. An owner who chooses to assume materials are asbestos-containing and treat them accordingly avoids the licensed inspector requirement, but every other handling and disposal rule still applies.¹

Licensing for Asbestos Work

South Carolina requires a license for everyone involved in an asbestos project that disturbs regulated material: contractors, supervisors, workers, air samplers, project designers, building inspectors, and management planners. Each person needs a license specific to their role.¹

Applicants have to complete a SCDES-approved initial training course and pass an exam with a score of at least 70 percent. Contractor licenses expire one year from issue; other licenses expire one year from the exam date. Refresher training is due within 12 months. Once more than 24 months pass since the last approved course, a refresher will no longer do, and the applicant has to retake the full initial course.¹ The licensing framework itself sits in Title 44, Chapter 87 of the state code.⁵

Landlord and Employer Duties

Landlords who know their rental property contains asbestos have to take reasonable steps to protect tenants. Under the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, a landlord’s duty to maintain a habitable property has been read to reach known environmental hazards, and a tenant who develops an asbestos disease from prolonged exposure in a negligently maintained building can bring a claim against the property owner.

Employers work under SC OSHA, the state’s OSHA-approved plan covering most private-sector and state and local government workplaces.⁶ Federal OSHA’s asbestos standards for general industry and construction set the baseline: assess exposure, use engineering and work-practice controls, provide protective equipment, and train employees.⁷ Employers must also keep medical surveillance records for each exposed employee for the duration of employment plus 30 years.⁸

For both landlords and employers, liability usually turns on what they knew and what they did. Concealing a known hazard or ignoring safety recommendations can support a negligence claim.

Suing for an Asbestos-Related Illness

A person diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, or asbestosis can file a personal injury lawsuit; surviving family can bring a wrongful death claim. The plaintiff has to prove the illness came from asbestos exposure the defendant caused, and that the defendant had a duty to prevent that harm.

Prima Facie Medical Evidence

Under the Asbestos and Silica Claims Procedure Act of 2006, no asbestos claim can move to discovery, be placed on an active trial roster, or be tried without a prima facie showing of asbestos-related disease. The plaintiff has to serve each defendant with a qualifying medical report before the case advances.⁹

For mesothelioma or another asbestos-related cancer, the report must come from a board-certified physician in pulmonary medicine, occupational medicine, internal medicine, oncology, or pathology, and it must conclude that asbestos exposure was a proximate cause. Language such as “consistent with” or “compatible with” an asbestos-related cancer does not satisfy the statute.⁹ For cancers other than mesothelioma, the physician also has to confirm an underlying nonmalignant asbestos-related condition and at least 15 years between first exposure and diagnosis.

For nonmalignant claims such as asbestosis, the report must document the diagnosis, physical exam, occupational and exposure history, and medical and smoking history, show at least 15 years between first exposure and diagnosis, and meet minimum radiological or pathological criteria on standardized medical grading scales.⁹ Getting the right diagnostic workup early matters.

Connecting the Illness to a Defendant

Even a qualifying report does not decide the case. The plaintiff still has to tie the illness to a specific defendant’s asbestos-containing product or premises, supported by medical expert testimony and detailed occupational history. In Henderson v. Allied Signal, Inc., the South Carolina Supreme Court found factual disputes over exposure to some defendants’ products while granting summary judgment to others where the plaintiff had no exposure evidence.¹⁰

Deadlines: The Discovery Rule and the Two-Year Workers’ Comp Trap

South Carolina gives plaintiffs three years to file a personal injury lawsuit, and three years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim.¹¹ Because asbestos diseases can take 20 to 50 years to appear, the statute of limitations for asbestos cases does not start running until the exposed person discovers, or through reasonable diligence should have discovered, that they are physically impaired by an asbestos-related condition.⁹ The clock starts at diagnosis, or when symptoms reasonably should have prompted one, not at the exposure itself.

Workers’ compensation runs on a different, and much tighter, clock. A worker is not entitled to compensation for a pulmonary disease from dust inhalation unless the disease was contracted within two years of the last exposure to the workplace hazard that caused it.¹² Given the long latency of asbestos diseases, many workers find their workers’ compensation route closed even when a civil lawsuit under the discovery rule remains viable.

Caps on Successor Corporation Liability

Many original asbestos manufacturers were absorbed into other companies through mergers and consolidations. Under South Carolina’s Successor Asbestos-Related Liability Fairness Act (Title 15, Chapter 81), a successor corporation’s total asbestos-related liabilities are capped at the fair market value of the acquired company’s gross assets at the time of the merger or consolidation. The cap adjusts annually at the Wall Street Journal prime rate plus one percent, without compounding.¹³

The cap does not apply to workers’ compensation benefits paid under South Carolina’s Title 42 or a comparable law in another state.¹³ A successor may owe limited amounts in tort while still facing full workers’ compensation obligations.

Workers’ Compensation and Trust Fund Claims

An employee who develops an occupational disease from workplace asbestos exposure can file for benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act (Title 42) without proving employer negligence. The worker has to show the disease arose out of and in the course of employment and was caused by a hazard peculiar to that occupation.¹⁴ Benefits can include medical care, disability payments, and death benefits.

When the responsible company has gone bankrupt, asbestos trust funds are often the practical source of recovery. Many former manufacturers set up court-ordered trusts through bankruptcy, holding billions of dollars nationwide. A claimant files with each relevant trust and provides exposure and medical documentation. Most trusts offer an expedited review that pays a fixed amount quickly and an individual review that takes longer but can yield more. Trust claims can be pursued alongside workers’ compensation to cover the full cost of treatment and lost income.

Penalties for Violations

SCDES monitors asbestos-related activities, inspects sites, and can issue stop-work orders and compliance directives.² Under South Carolina Code Section 44-87-50, a violation of the state’s asbestos abatement licensing chapter can draw a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation, assessable administratively.⁵ Repeat or pattern noncompliance can lead to license suspension or revocation.

Federal penalties are heavier. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA can pursue civil penalties up to $25,000 per day for each violation at the statutory baseline, and inflation-adjusted penalties can exceed $121,000 per day for violations occurring after November 2, 2015.¹⁵ Knowing violations of the asbestos NESHAP during demolition or renovation carry up to five years in prison, doubled for a second conviction.¹⁶ Illegal dumping and falsified inspection reports can bring both state and federal prosecution. Citizen complaints can trigger SCDES investigations and EPA enforcement, and both agencies have authority to conduct unannounced inspections.

1
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. South Carolina Code of Regulations 61-86.1 – Standards of Performance for Asbestos Projects
2
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. DHEC Restructuring
3
US Environmental Protection Agency. Overview of the Asbestos National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
4
Legal Information Institute. South Carolina Code Regulations 61-86.1.VIII – Disposal Requirements
5
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 44-87 – Asbestos Abatement License
6
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. South Carolina State Plan
7
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1926.1101 – Asbestos
8
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Asbestos
9
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 44 Chapter 135 – The Asbestos and Silica Claims Procedure Act of 2006
10
Justia. Henderson v. Allied Signal, Inc.
11
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 15-3-530 – Three Years
12
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 42-11-70 – Time in Which Disease Must Have Been Contracted
13
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 15-81 – Successor Asbestos-Related Liability Fairness Act
14
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 42-11-10 – Occupational Disease Defined
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 7413 – Federal Enforcement
16
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Criminal Provisions of the Clean Air Act