Radioactivity risk associated with the handling of compact fluorescent lamps.

The objective of this work is focused in measuring the level of naturally occurring radionuclides in compact fluorescent lamps commonly used in Egypt. The activity concentration of radionuclides in the (238)U and (232)Th decay chains and from (40)K were determined through gamma-ray spectrometry measurements using high-purity germanium in a low-background configuration. It was found that the activity concentrations ranged from 45 to 198 Bq kg(-1) for (238)U, from 30 to 191 Bqkg(-1) for (232)Th and from 419 to 935 Bq kg(-1) for (40)K.