I believed this for years. And then just a year or two ago there was a thread here on FR from India where a couple of Indian doctors wrote a paper on the same thing. Now you say John Hopkins has seen this too.
Almost makes me want to start again :-)
A few years ago, a friend of mine and his wife decided to quit together. They were in their early 40s and decided to live "better" and went on this huge health kick.
Three years later she was dead of a very aggressive lung cancer.
My mother had 5 siblings plus her parents, for a total of 7. All except her smoked, drank and raised hell in general. She lead a very healthy Christian life. They all died between 85 and 89.
Her nephew, my cousin, quit at age sixty. He did of lung cancer at age sixty-one. His mother, my aunt and my mother’s older sister, quit when she was 88. She died of lung cancer at 89.
Of course these are just antidotal but they were in my small circle of relatives. I have smoked for 56 years and feel great and am in great shape as far as I know. All medical test and x-rays come out great.