Too few governments make full use of tobacco taxes to dissuade people from smoking or help them to cut down and quit, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday, recommending that at least 75 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes should be tax.

In its "The Global Tobacco Epidemic 2015" report, the WHO said that one person dies from tobacco-related disease every six seconds, equivalent to about 6 million people a year. That number is forecast to rise to more than 8 million people a year by 2030 unless strong measures are taken to control what the WHO calls a "tobacco epidemic."

There are 1 billion smokers worldwide, but many countries have extremely low tobacco tax rates and some have no special tobacco taxes, the agency said.

"Raising taxes on tobacco products is one of the most effective and cost-effective ways to reduce consumption of products that kill, while also generating substantial revenue," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in the report.

She urged all governments to look at the evidence and "adopt one of the best win-win policy options available for health."

Tobacco is one of the four main risk factors behind non-communicable diseases - mostly cancer, cardiovascular and lung diseases and diabetes.   In 2012, these diseases killed 16 million people under the age of 70, with more than 80 percent of those deaths in poor or middle-income countries.

Yet since 2008, when 22 countries had tobacco tax that accounted for more than 75 percent of the price of a packet of cigarettes, only 11 more countries have taken action to increase taxes, the WHO said.