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Minnesota regulators, for the first time, are considering banning or restricting a controversial class of insecticides that has been linked to honeybee deaths.

The possibility, disclosed this week by the state Department of Agriculture in a revised outline for a study of the chemicals, followed an outpouring of public concern over the dramatic decline in honeybee populations in recent years.

“Obviously people are very interested in this,” said Gregg Regimbal, an official with the department’s Pesticide & Fertilizer Management Division. “It’s a very complex issue and it’s highly charged.”

More than 400 citizens wrote the agency earlier this year with comments on the proposed review of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, which have been linked to bee deaths around the world.

Regimbal said the public response was heavy, with many commenters wanting to know why the study, as originally outlined by the agency, didn’t include the possibility of banning the chemicals.

A revised outline published this week states that the range of state action could include “restrictions on or cancellation of products.”

“We wanted to make sure it was clear that it’s in our authority   and that that would be an option,” Regimbal said.

Lex Horan, a Minneapolis-based organizer for Pesticide Action Network of North America, said a suspension, restriction or ban in Minnesota is plausible if the state conducts a careful study of neonicotinoids and their effects on pollinators and other insects.

He said people who wrote to the agency are heartened by the revised outline, including other aspects of the upcoming review.