However, it is clear (at least to me) that these three types of consumption relationships can only describe the circumstances for each individual ecig user, and thus NOT ecigs as a whole -- which is exactly what the FDA wants to say here. And so the only way you can actually assess the 'relative health impact' of ecigs generally is to try and estimate what proportions of us fall into each of those categories, give relative negative or positive health impact weights to each one, which especially in the case of 'substitutes' would directly depend on exactly how much safer ecigs are vs. combustibles (a quantification the FDA have slyly avoided in order to create at least one scenario with an obvious negative health impact), add them all up and see what your left with.
This is right. Whether they simply don't understand the
process of going from smoking to vaping, or they
do and they are using those 'facts' to distort the whole picture.
A person who either wants to stop smoking or to see what ecigarettes are all about, may buy a cigalike, and get an idea that something like this
could be a substitute for smoking. However, they are still using cigarettes because of the fact that a recent study showed. The cigalikes don't get the levels of nicotine in the blood that eGos (and APV's) can. This is much of the 'dual user' fallacy. Now we all know of veteran vapers that still smoke and occasional cigarette, but that is not the picture that is being put out by the FDA/ANTZ idea of 'dual use'.
Then you're going to find some people who use cigalikes and quit smoking entirely - perhaps later they find eGos/APVs they like and go to those.
And you'll find some people who try ecigs of any type, go back to smoking and maybe stay there or return to ecigs, etc. with varied results.
When CDC/ANTZ do surveys, they'll find people in a variety of these stages, so it appears to them as 'substitutes', complementary and not related.
This is very similar to people like Prue Talbot coming on ECF and grabbing "data" from our 'health forums' to say ecigs cause lots of mucus, dry throat, headaches, allergic reactions, neck pain, heart racing, hiccups, and .........

etc. etc.
But we know the reason for each of these - lots of mucus is that your lung cilia are now working again - dry throat - needs hydration because PG and VG are desiccants. Headaches and neck pain - you're drawing to hard - clean your coil or get a air controller for your protank. Allergy - try VG. heart racing, hiccups - lower your nic level. And many of these symptoms are similar to other ways of quitting smoking but they only assign it to the 'bad effects of ecigs'.
But most people don't know that (although you have to think Prue does) so when reported
without context, it looks terrible. Same way with the 'timeline' of experimentation with cigalikes to eGos and beyond - many dual users until they find what they need. Then it is truly a safer substitute for smoking. But you damn near have to be at least a 6 month participant in an ecig forum to truly understand that.
That's is some of what we're up against. Not just ignorance but an outright falsification of 'incidentals' along the way of going from smoking to vaping.