KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 – A man from Missouri has died from a lung illness linked to vaping, health officials said, making it the eighth death in the United States associated with e-cigarettes.
CNN reported that the man, who was in his mid-40s, had normal lung function before he started to vape in May.
He developed mild respiratory symptoms that worsened, and was hospitalised on August 22.
“This is an unfortunate case of a young man with no prior lung illness who started vaping because of chronic pain issues,” Dr. Michael Plisco, Mercy Hospital St. Louis critical care pulmonologist and medical director of Mercy’s extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) programme, was quoted saying in a media release.
“He started out with shortness of breath and it rapidly progressed and deteriorated, developing into what is called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
“Once the lungs are injured by vaping, we don’t know how quickly it worsens and if it depends on other risk factors,” he said.
In the past month, seven previous deaths have been reported due to vaping habits — two in California and one each in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon.
Officials say that they are expecting more deaths to be reported.
The country is working on a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes to combat the issue.
