The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a billion people worldwide could die from tobacco-related illnesses during this century, Reuters reported July 2.

Douglas Bettcher, head of the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative,  said that tobacco "kills 5.4 million people per year and half of those deaths are in developing countries. That's like one jumbo jet going down every hour."

Bettcher said that rising smoking rates in the developing world could lead to unprecedented death rates. He called on governments to raise tobacco taxes, ban advertising, and enforce smoke-free workplace laws and indoor-smoking bans. "It's a completely preventable epidemic," Bettcher said. "If we do that, by 2050 we can save 200 million lives."