Health Department Officials Suggest Discontinuing Vaping Citing New Possible Risks

The Centers for Disease Control and Protection and the NC Department of Health and Human Services are warning people on the dangers of e-cigarettes. This comes after recent reports of severe lung diseases after vaping. 

At least three patients in North Carolina were hospitalized this summer after using e-cigarette or vaping type devices. And health officials are now saying if you vape, stop.

Symptoms may be similar to pneumonia. Including shortness of breath, cough, nausea, and vomiting. The severity varies, and some people have wound up in the intensive care unit.

Merle Green is the director of the Guilford County Public Health Department. She says that as medical providers contact poison control centers with these cases, the common denominator is the use of vaping products.

“Our state health department has compared notes with CDC," Green says. 'And because we are seeing this in every state, not just North Carolina, we're all trying to get the message out that it appears that these products are part of the mysterious respiratory illnesses that are being documented nationwide.”

Green says they're urging people to stop vaping while research is conducted. County Health officials are confident that there are probably more illnesses from vaping than are officially documented.