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Chinese Toddler Addicted to Cigarettes
A two-year-old is smoking a pack a day, thanks to his father’s misguided attempts to alleviate the pain of his other health problems.
Tong Liangliang smoked his first cigarette when he was 18 months-old, and has been gradually increasing his tobacco intake ever since. His father believed that cigarettes could relieve the pain of Tong’s hernia, since he was too young for an operation. We all know how difficult it is to watch a child in pain, but I’m truly incapable of imagining the thinking that would lead someone with otherwise good intentions to put a lit cigarette in a baby’s mouth.
We can only hope that this father’s dire mistake was due to simple ignorance, given that, as recently as 1998, two-thirds of Chinese people did not believe that smoking was harmful to your health. But now that the tot’s dangerous habit has become international news, it is essential that health care officials intervene in what is, to my mind, clearly a case of child endangerment.
Photo: The Daily Mail
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3 Comments
TolaniLucia commented on Jun 25 09 at 2:59 pmNow I know longer feel so guilty about my 2 cigarettes on the porch.
jessica commented on Jun 25 09 at 3:11 pmwtf!
Shana commented on Jun 26 09 at 12:09 pmMy brother in law, who teaches Asian studies, has long said that healthcare is going to be one of the biggest issues for China in the future. U.S. tobacco firms have for the most part decided to put their real effort into making money in Asia and Africa. So seeing something like this is not all that surprising for me. I am sure that many parents in China are very misinformed about the negative health effect of smoking. Smoking related disease and HIV/AIDS is already a big problem there that the government seems to be hoping will just go away, but it is just getting worse and worse.
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