Anti-tobacco advocates worldwide are stunned, but the dad of a chain-smoking Indonesian toddler doesn’t see what the big deal is. And, mom adds, don’t even think about taking the coffin nails away from their little stovepipe terror of a tyke.

“He’s totally addicted,” mother Diana Rizal, 26, said of Ardi, the 2-year-old ashtray of her eye. “If he doesn’t get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick.”

Ardi had his first smoke at 18 months under Dad’s unconcerned eye, British papers reported. Mohammed Rizal, 30, opined, “He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem.”

The boy is overweight and uses a toy truck to get around because he can’t keep up with other kids.

The boy’s disturbing habit hasn’t escaped public notice in Sumatra. Concerned officials hit on the idea of offering to buy the family a car if the pint-sized puffer quits. No luck.

The disturbing video of the butt-slinging short-stuff has become an Internet sensation. Scandalized anti-tobacco advocates say it shows what a vice grip the cigarette industry has on the third world.

“I was horrified but not surprised,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “This video demonstrates how truly tragic the global use of tobacco is.”

Courtesy by bostonherald.com