A sickening video of a 2-year-old Indonesian toddler puffing away on a cigarette is being described by anti-tobacco advocates as a “tragic” example of the vice grip the cigarette industry has on the developing 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.”

British media outlets broke the heartbreaking news about Ardi Rizal, who took his first smoke at 18 months under the watch of his father, Mohammed, 30.

The boy’s family now claims the 2-year-old is so hooked he can’t kick the filthy habit.

“He’s totally addicted,” said his mother, Diana, 26. “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.”

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

The boy’s disturbing habit hasn’t escaped public notice in Sumatra. Concerned officials offered to buy the family a car if Ardi quits.

Mohammed Rizal, the boy’s dad, seemed unconcerned, British media reported.

“He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem,” he said.

Myers said multi-national tobacco companies are buying up indigenous tobacco producers in the developing world and using their vast influence to hook new smokers, who have virtually no information about the health effects.

He said a recent study projected tobacco use to grow the fastest in Vietnam and Indonesia, where cigarettes are cheap and undertaxed. Myers added there is data showing low-income Indonesian families spending as much as 12 percent of their income on tobacco products.

“Those who are selling tobacco in low-income countries know no bounds in what they will do,” Myers said. “The tobacco companies are treating the developing world as the great new growth market and are taking maximum advantage of the lack of understanding among the poorest of the poor in these societies.”

The picture is also grim in places like China and India, where Myers said he’s seen 5-year-olds with mouth cancer from chewing tobacco. He said the Indonesian government has done virtually nothing to educate parents about tobacco use and have refused to sign a World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Myers added the United States also hasn’t ratified the framework, which sets forth international standards for tobacco prevention education.

“As Americans we should express outrage at the multi-national companies but we should also demand that the American government ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and begin to devote more of our aid dollars to address this problem.”