Japan's agriculture ministry has put a draft honeybee assessment of the plant growth regulator daminozide out for public comment. The draft concludes that, used as applied for, the chemical is considered unlikely to impair the maintenance of bee colonies. Comments are open from 15 October to 13 November 2026.
What the draft finds
The assessment covers four daminozide formulations, sprayed on leaves of crops including chrysanthemum, ornamental kale and cyclamen. Nippon Soda and a second applicant filed the data. The chemical works by lowering the action of the plant hormone gibberellin, which curbs stem elongation. The draft says it is registered in the United States, Europe, Canada and other jurisdictions as of July 2026.
The draft reports four toxicity indicators for honeybees, all derived from lab studies on Apis mellifera. Each reported value is a "greater than" figure: the lethal dose (the amount that kills half of test bees) was not reached at the highest dose tested.
| Test | Reported value | Indicator adopted |
|---|---|---|
| Adult single contact, 48 hours | > 198.8 | 190 |
| Adult single oral, 48 hours | > 198.8 | 190 |
| Adult repeated oral, 10 days | > 106.2 | 100 |
| Larval oral, 120 hours | > 21.4 | 21 |
Because adult single-dose toxicity was above 11 micrograms per bee, the draft says no precautionary label statement is needed. It also says the chemical is not an insect growth regulator, so it is not put through the risk assessment of the first-round re-evaluation and no exposure estimate was made.
The data behind it
The studies date from 1985, 1987, 2014 and 2015, and all four are listed as unpublished. The 1985 study tested a formulation and was used as reference only. The draft records no pollen-and-nectar residue trials and no colony-level trials. A systematic search of 2,706 published papers across all fields found none on honeybees that qualified for the assessment.
How the process works
The ministry's Agricultural Materials Council pesticide bee-impact subcommittee endorsed the draft at its 22nd meeting on 10 September 2026. Under Article 39 of the Agricultural Chemicals Control Act, the minister must seek the council's opinion on pesticide registrations and changes. The ministry says it will decide the text after considering the comments received.
The consultation is voluntary rather than required under the Administrative Procedure Act. Submissions must be in Japanese and go through the e-Gov form or by post to the ministry's pesticide office in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo, with the sender's name, address and contact details. The ministry does not take comments by phone or reply to individual submissions, and comments may be published apart from personal information.