As cigarette companies push into growing markets in developing countries, World Health Organization leaders took the stage in Chicago last week to advocate for the first-ever global health treaty to create worldwide anti-tobacco standards for the next century.

The organization is gearing up for the treaty’s first negotiating session this fall by enlisting the support of participants at the largest World Conference on Tobacco, held in Chicago last week with 4,500 representatives from more than 140 countries.

Health leaders are unsure what the final treaty will look like — how far bans on advertising or smoking cessation program requirements will go, for example.

But despite the hazy future, they believe that a legally binding treaty is needed to overtake what they see as a worldwide epidemic they estimate will kill 10 million people every year by 2030.

With the domestic decline in smoking, cigarette companies have looked to growth markets. In North America, just 4.7 percent of the population smokes; in Asia 54 percent of the people smoke, according to figures presented at the conference.

There are a handful of treaty issues that even the tobacco companies support: protecting children and adolescents from tobacco use, ending smuggling and providing information on cigarette ingredients.

But the companies don’t agree on other issues, including raising cigarette taxes, banning advertising or prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars.

The treaty initiative comes at a time when scientific knowledge about tobacco is exploding. Never before have researchers been privy to so much information about the tobacco industry and how cigarettes are made, due to the past decade’s spate of U.S. tobacco litigation and the Food and Drug Administration inquiry into the contents of cigarettes.

African countries such as Malawi and Zimbabwe, for instance, depend on tobacco as a key agricultural crop.

Health leaders are hoping such countries will be open to transitioning those crops into other production.

Other countries, such Papua New Guinea, may be reluctant to make any agreements on ending tobacco sponsorship of sporting and cultural events, as the country’s highly popular rugby teams depend on tobacco sponsorship.

For its part, the United States has several issues to overcome and may be one of the toughest countries to persuade to support a strong treaty.

For starters, the United States has historically been loath to ratify international treaties. While presidents through the years have signed treaties to indicate their support for treaty goals, putting a treaty into practice in America takes a two-thirds ratification vote by the Senate, something not easily attained.