Politics is all about marketing

Mercury is illegal in Norway from January 1, 2008, or so they want us to think. The Minister of the Environment duly noted the ban in a press release sent out the last day of business before the holiday started. It is a shocking announcement, but nobody seems to notice that fluorescent bulbs, LCD screens, laptops, thermostats, batteries, and quite a few medications would be banned starting next year.

I pulled up the actual changes to the law, and all these products were exempted, the only thing that was actually banned was amalgam tooth restoration material and mercury thermometers in labs.

The headline on press releases that states that mercury is now banned is a severe misrepresentation. Maybe they hope that the greens will feel good about this key component being illegal and that they greens are too lazy to check the actual text of the law.

All the links are in Norwegian.