Smoking Kid in Indonesia finally quits habit
Ardi Rizal, a two-year-old Indonesian boy who got into smoking, can finish 40 cigarettes a day has eliminated the habit after getting an intensive specialist care, a child welfare official said Thursday.
Ardi stunne and shocked the world when a video of him surfaced on the internet drawing heavily on cigarettes in May and alarmed Indonesia to know their failure to regulate the tobacco industry.
"He has quit smoking and the most important thing is he doesn’t ask for cigarettes anymore," national commission for child protection secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait told AFP.
After six months when his father gave him his first cigarette, the overweight toddler was smoking two packs a day and threw violent tantrums if his addiction was not met.
Together with his mother, the boy left his village on Sumatra island in July to undergo treatment in the capital.
"He received psychosocial therapy for one month, during which therapists kept him busy with activities and encouraged him to play with kids of the same age," Sirait said.
"We diverted his addiction from cigarettes to playing."
Meanwhile, Ardi’s case has emphasized the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing to women and children in developing countries like Indonesia, but regulations are weak and many people do not know that smoking is hazardous to health.
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