I opened up a new box of F32T8 Sylvania tubes the other day.  These are the new gen of tubes, (Ecologic 3) and thus far for the ones I've installed, they are doing fine, save for significant dimming in the center when first turning on for the day, but that is an issue I've found with GE & Philips as well for the newer gen tubes (less mercury has it's drawbacks for sure?) they warm up to full intensity after a minute or two save for when new and being used for the first time, in which case I burn them in for a good 15 min.  Anyway, the box had been damaged in shipment and one of the tubes had shattered.  This allowed me the opportunity to take a closer look at the end of one of them, and lone and behold- I saw something I was not expecting.. A filament shield.  The previous gen did not have these, nor have any of the T8s from Sylvania or even T12s that I can recall.. it's always been a GE & Philips thing to use those guards to help prevent showing blackening of the ends as the lamp ages.  It is certainly nice to see, as Sylvania lamps always have been noteworthy of sputtering and blackening the ends of the tubes for as long as I can remember, but one has to wonder if there is more end blackening associated with the lower amounts of mercury the manufacturers have to use to meet environmental guidelines.. 

The newer f17t8 octrons have filament shields on them too.