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North Carolina hospital reports state's 1st vaping death

File photo shows a high school student uses a vaping device near a school campus in  Mass. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is declaring a public health emergency and ordering a four-month temporary ban on all vaping products in the state.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina hospital is reporting the state's first death linked to vaping.

Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro says the death occurred on Wednesday, but spokesman Doug Allred couldn't provide any additional details on Thursday.

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Allred says the hospital has had eight cases of vaping-related illness since August, including the unidentified person who died.

Last week, Cone Health confirmed it had treated at least six patients with a severe lung illness associated with electronic-cigarette use.

Andrew Doss, of Mooresville, is one of 805 confirmed or probable cases in 46 states.

Doss, 35, started vaping to quit smoking.

"We all think it's safer or as safe as cigarettes, and I don't think it is," he told Channel 9.

He got a strange cough about 10 months after vaping.

"I was sweating," Doss said. "I had a huge amount of chest pain.

Doctors said he had a 30% lung collapse.

"In her opinion, it was due to vaping," Doss said.

He said the information available to the public does not show how dangerous vaping is.

[ALSO READ: State health department confirms first vaping-related death in Georgia]

Dr. Murali Ramaswamy, director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program for LeBauer Health Care at Cone Health, said that in nearly all the cases, patients told doctors they had used THC, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana's mind-altering effects, in the vaping devices.

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