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But the image covers up a much more disturbing truth: At
just the tender age of two, Ardi Rizal's health has been so ruined by his
40-a-day habit that he now struggles to move by himself.
The four-stone Indonesia toddler is certainly far too unfit to run around
with other children - and his condition is set to rapidly deteriorate.
But, despite local officials' offer to buy the Rizal family a new car if the
boy quits, his parents feel unable to stop him because he throws massive
tantrums if they don't indulge him.
His mother, Diana, 26, wept: 'He's totally addicted. 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 will smoke only one brand and his habit costs his parents £3.78 a day
in Musi Banyuasin, in Indonesia's South Sumatra province.
But in spite of this, his fishmonger father Mohammed, 30, said: 'He looks
pretty healthy to me. I don't see the problem.'
Ardi's youth is the extreme of a disturbing trend. Data from the Central
Statistics Agency showed 25 per cent of Indonesian children aged three to 15
have tried cigarettes, with 3.2 per cent of those active smokers.
The percentage of five to nine year olds lighting up increased from 0.4 per
cent in 2001 to 2.8 per cent in 2004, the agency reported.
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