In ,
whit3rd wrote:

The other type of fluorescents are called "cold cathode" ...
*These are long life

Well, relative to the service life of incandescent lamps (1000 hours
more or less) they have a long service life. The collection of
tricks for starting them, though, includes small amounts of
radioactive gas with a few years half-life. Twenty years from now,
an attic incandescent lamp will come on every time, your attic
CCFL won't.

CCFL is not CFL - single C is "Compact", double C is "Cold Cathode".
Some units are both, usually with wattage in the 3 to 9 watt range, and
most 9-watt CFLs only qualify for one C.

In general, CFLs having integral electronic ballasts (including over
99.7% of spiral type units and over 99.8% of spiral type units with screw
bases allowing substitution for incandescents) appear to me to not have
added radioactive isotopes or notably harmful radioactive materials in
order to start. Electronic ballasts, "rapid start" ballasts, "trigger
start" ballasts and "instant start" ballasts *at least generally* negate
the need for "glow switch starters" which are the main usage of
radioactive materials for fluorescent lighting.

- Don Klipstein )