By Admin 
A group of YouTubers are being criticised online for their latest video showing them giving members of an indigenous tribe snus pouches and vapes.
The NELK Boys, commonly referred to as NELK, are a group of American-Canadian content creators who have become extremely popular on social media.
Made up of Kyle Forgeard, Aaron ‘Steiny’ Steinberg and Salim Sirur, they have eight million subscribers on YouTube with millions more across Instagram and TikTok.
However, in their latest upload shared on Christmas Eve (24 December), the group has faced backlash for their actions in part of the video.
(YouTube/NELK)
Titled ‘NELK Visits a Dangerous Uncontacted Tribe!’, the YouTubers visited a Pacific island near Fiji to meet a tribe.
At the time of writing, their video has over four million views, but people aren’t happy with NELK for handing out vapes and snus to the tribe members.
Taking to the comments, many are under the assumption that the indigenous peoples have never been given these substances before and have accused NELK of ‘polluting their authenticity’.
Forgeard, along with his fellow content creators, are seen encouraging the tribe to try out snus, which is a smokeless, moist tobacco product designed to be placed under the upper lip, delivering nicotine without any smoking.
(YouTube/NELK)
Overuse poses health risks, such as addiction, gum damage, increased heart disease and cancer.
“That was a trashy move,” one person wrote on X. “Tribal communities are surprisingly healthy and some of them live very long lives. Bringing toxic products to them doesn’t help them.”
“How tf did they successfully pull this off?” another questioned, while a third person added: “Why would you do this to people?”
“The fact they went there only stayed one night and dipped on all of them when they were supposed to be their longer shows who they really are,” a fourth slammed.
“Just money, only about money and fame. With zero care.”
“They messed up for corrupting those pure ppl,” wrote a fifth, as a sixth agreed: “I don’t like this, polluting their authenticity.”
“Nah this is weird, Like how was the first idea you get for meeting a tribal community is ‘they should hit my vape’,” someone else said.
“Undoubtedly there are going to be all sorts of things from the Vapes introduced to these guys that their bodies won’t know how to deal with,” another penned.
LADbible Group has contacted a representative of NELK for comment.
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/NELK
When you’re puffing away on your vape have you ever wondered how they made sure that thing was ready to ship out?
Basically anywhere in the world where something gets made there’s going to be a quality control step to make sure they’re not sending out a load of defective crap.
It’s pretty much always worth the time to check if something works before shipping it out, and if you do send out subpar things it mostly costs you time, money and reputation.
People couldn’t unsee it. (YouTube/MACHINA)
As for what this has got to do with vaping, how do you imagine they do quality control on that little tube of addictive liquid?
According to a video which went inside a factory in China that makes disposable vapes you might be left wishing you didn’t know.
YouTuber Machina visited a factory in Shenzhen, China, to see how they made all of those vapes which line the shelves and are made to be huffed and puffed on before being thrown away.
Every vape was tested with a human mouth. (YouTube/MACHINA)
After going through how they made the vapes it was time for a visit to the quality control team, and what the YouTube video showed was people puffing away on each individual vape once before sending it out.
One man the YouTuber spoke to said that in a normal day he’d test between 7,000 and 8,000 vapes a day, but when things got really busy that’d rise to about 10,000.
Imagine that being your job? You sit at a desk and take an individual drag on thousands of vapes a day before they’re sent off and sold.
Plenty of viewers were astonished that they could have been vaping a device that had already known the mouth of another, while others couldn’t believe that the guy with the job to vape all day also said he vaped during his free time.
One commenter said they ‘actually feel sorry for that kid testing all the vapes’, pointing out that while vaping is healthier than smoking it’s still harmful to you.
Thousands of puffs on thousands of vapes every day all adds up to a lot of health hazards.
Some people who’ve vaped to excess have ended up being hospitalised and severely unwell, and medical experts are keen to stress that vaping is definitely not healthy.
Giving up on vaping can help you in both body and mind, and someone taking thousands of puffs on vapes a day is likely to feel the impact of it eventually.
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/MACHINA
A doctor has warned people of the potential dangers facing them from vaping.
It’s widely understood that vapes are one of the best ways to give up smoking, but are they as safe as most think?
Well, according to Dr Mike, a family medicine specialist and YouTuber, they could pose a huge risk to young people.
A recent survey by Action on Smoking and Health found that 15 percent of children aged 11 to 15, and more than a third of 16 to 17-year-olds in the UK, have vaped at some point.
And speaking out about the risks of vaping to our health, Dr Mike warned that the little devices can actually ‘change the chemistry in the brain’.
Dr Mike, who has over 25 million followers on social media and is also the host of ‘The Checkup with Doctor Mike’ podcast, made the point that because, on paper, vaping is not as harmful as cigarettes, many more people are getting hooked on it, leading to health issues and scares.
The risk is believed to be even greater amongst children because their brains are still developing.
A recent study found that harmful chemicals in vapes could be stunting the growth of their brains and other organs.
How dangerous is vaping? (Getty Stock Image)
Dr Mike explained that vaping is particularly a problem in children as their frontal lobes are still developing whilst receiving these dangerously rewarding chemicals.
Therefore, this means that the part of their brain that is responsible for complex decision making is not yet fully formed, making them incredibly susceptible to addiction.
This is particularly dangerous when coupled with vaping due to bright coloured enticing packaging, sweet flavours and a nice smelling odour.
Dr Mike told the Diary of a CEO podcast: “It can change the chemistry in their brain moving forward so we don’t want to make it easier for them to start smoking.”
He also said: “There has been children who have been hospitalised with it. There has been vaping related lung injury, where that is its own diagnosis code now.”
Dr Mike has warned people of the dangers posed by vaping. (YouTube/Diary of A CEO)
During the podcast Dr Mike made it clear that although the dangers of vaping for children are negative there are still positive uses for vapes.
He made the point that vaping should be used as a tool to stop smoking cigarettes and should not be a way of introducing people to nicotine, specifically children.
A key point that was made during the podcast was that ‘insidious misinformation can be more problematic than true disinformation’.
He said: “I’m here trying to explain that vaping can be problematic because on the surface it may not look as harmful, by comparison.”
In many cases people do not understand the risks there are to vaping as ‘the chemicals found inside are really rewarding to the brain’, overriding any medical advice.
Dr Mike furthered his point by comparing the effects of vaping to the effects of Covid-19.
For a period, Covid was not as big of a problem – there were worse viruses in the world at that point – but complacency and asymptomatic spread changed this.
Similarly, vaping was supposed to be a positive change that stopped smokers from using cigarettes but has now unfortunately become a worldwide problem, similar to Covid-19.
“When something doesn’t seem that bad, we can allow it to go much further and cause much more harm,” Dr Mike explained.
Although there are many dangerous risks to vaping it is important to note that according to the NHS, people who switch completely from smoking to vaping have significantly reduced exposure to toxins associated with risks of cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke.
The NHS also has evidence that shows nicotine vapes are a more effective way of quitting smoking compared to other replacement therapies such as patches and gum – most specifically because of the hand to mouth action and the similar ‘throat hit’.