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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The family of a Hunlock Creek man who died of pancreatic cancer are suing the Monsanto Company, claming its Roundup herbicide product contains carcinogens that resulted in his death.</p><p>The suit, filed last week in Luzerne County Court by the Comitz Law Firm, lists the estate of Albert S. Finarelli Jr. and the deceased man&#8217;s wife, Kathleen Finarelli, as plaintiffs.</p><p>Finarelli, 70, died on Jan. 26, 2015. His survivors are seeking at least $75,000 in damages, interest and costs.</p><p>The lawsuit states that Finarelli purchased and used more than 70 gallons of Roundup and other Monsanto glyphosate products per year from approximately 1994 through 2015 on his property, and used them on a near-daily basis.</p><p>According to the suit, glyphosate is a herbicide used in a wide variety of herbicidal products around the world, and that Monsanto has represented it as safe.</p><p>But, the suit points out, a 2015 report issued by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (&#8220;IARC&#8221;) an agency of the World Health Organization (&#8220;WHO&#8221;), classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogenic to humans.</p><p><strong>Other cases</strong></p><p>Efforts to determine who is representing St. Louis-based Monsanto in the case to seek comment were not immediately successful on Monday.</p><p>But <a href="https://www.apnews.com/11649cfa468e49d281d5369cb47c11af" target="_blank">an Associated Press story published in October</a> indicated that Monsanto vowed to press on with a nationwide legal defense of its best-selling weed killer Roundup after a San Francisco judge upheld a verdict alleging it causes cancer.</p><p>&#8220;Monsanto argues that numerous scientific studies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have found glyphosate to be safe,&#8221; the AP report stated, noting that thousands of similar lawsuits were pending across the country.</p><p>Similar lawsuits doubled from 4,000 to 8,000 after a San Francisco jury awarded groundskeeper DeWayne Johnson $389 million in August, the AP added.</p><p>In October Judge Suzanne Bolanos cut the jury&#8217;s award for Johnson to $78 million but upheld its verdict against Monsanto.</p><p>Monsanto argues that numerous scientific studies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have found glyphosate to be safe, the AP noted.</p><p>&#8220;Because of this, we will continue to vigorously defend our glyphosate-based products,&#8221; company spokesman Daniel Childs said at the time.</p><p>But Johnson&#8217;s attorney &#8212; like Comitz locally &#8212; argued that the World Health Organization in 2015 concluded otherwise.</p><p>And the National Pesticide Information Center, a joint venture between Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says <a href="http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html#cancer" target="_blank">&#8220;some studies suggest that glyphosate has carcinogenic potential,&#8221;</a> and that &#8220;glyphosate exposure has been linked to developmental and reproductive effects at high doses that were administered to rats repeatedly during pregnancy.&#8221;</p><p>Johnson, a groundskeeper and pest-control manager, was 42 when he developed a rash that would lead to a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin&#8217;s lymphoma in August 2014, National Public Radio <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/01/662812333/groundskeeper-accepts-reduced-78-million-in-monsanto-cancer-suit" target="_blank">reported in a November story on his case</a>.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Finarelli </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_Al-Finarelli-Jr.-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Finarelli </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle and Roger DuPuis</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Hunlock Creek man’s family sues Monsanto over cancer death