A group dedicated to implementing a United Nations tobacco-control treaty has tallied nearly 40 million global tobacco fatalities on its "death clock," Bloomberg reported Oct. 20.

The Framework Convention Alliance, an organization of groups advocating for tighter tobacco controls, started the clock when negotiations on the global tobacco treaty began on Oct. 25, 1999. As of 9 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2008, the number had reached 39,776,437 lives lost.

One person dies every 5.8 seconds from causes linked to tobacco use, researchers estimate. "Every number was a family member and a loved one," said Mary Assunta, head of the alliance.

Lower-income countries are experiencing the steepest rise in smoking, with China and Indonesia among 10 nations where almost two-thirds of the world's smokers live, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The clock serves as 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."