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Tobacco will kill nearly six million people this year, including 600,000 non-smokers, because governments are not doing enough to persuade people to quit or protect others from second-hand smoke, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Since there is often a lag of many years between when people start smoking and when it affects health, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun, the WHO said. But by 2030, the annual death toll could reach 8 million.

The United Nations health body urged more governments to sign up to and implement its tobacco control treaty, warning that if current trends persist, tobacco could cause up to a billion deaths in the 21st century, a dramatic rise from the 100 million deaths it caused in the previous century.

So far, 172 countries and the European Union have signed up to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which came into force in 2005 and obliges them to take steps over time to cut smoking rates, limit exposure to second hand smoke, and curb tobacco advertising and promotion.

The WHO noted some encouraging recent moves — Uruguay now requires health warnings that cover 80 percent of the surface of tobacco packs, and China last month implemented a ban on smoking in public places such as restaurants and bars.