Almost 40 million people have died of tobacco-related diseases since 1999, according to a "death clock" unveiled today by the Framework Convention Alliance, an organization of groups advocating tighter tobacco controls.

One person dies every 5.8 seconds from causes linked to tobacco, according to the alliance. The clock went on display as delegates from the 160 countries that belong to a global tobacco control treaty began a second session on a protocol concerning illicit trade.

Tobacco use will kill 1 billion people this century, 10 times more than in the prior 100 years, unless poor states raise consumption taxes and mandate health warnings, the World Health Organization said in February. Smoking is rising most quickly in lower-income countries, and China and Indonesia are among the 10 nations where almost two-thirds of the world's smokers live, according to the WHO.

The clock is a "reminder of the sheer needlessness of this epidemic," said Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative. "This is an epidemic that is affecting the poorest of the poor."

Philip Morris International Inc.'s Greg Prager, a spokesman for the New York-based cigarette maker in the Swiss city of Lausanne, said the company has been consistent in its communications that "tobacco is addictive and causes disease."

"That is why we have been outspoken in our support for regulation of the industry in every market where our products are sold," he said in an e-mailed statement.

The clock was started when countries began negotiating the framework convention on Oct. 25, 1999. The tally was 39,779,710 as a white cloth was removed from the yellow display.

"Every number was a family member and a loved one," said Mary Assunta, head of the alliance. Its 350 members include the Tobacco Free Coalition, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and the American Lung Association.