Studies on the Impact of Road Traffic Noise inside Selected Schools of Tiruchirappalli City, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

Traffic noise is one of the major factors causing noise pollution in schools, interfering with learning and teaching activities. School going children are reported to have difficulty in processing the acoustic signals that are presented in noisy environment. The present study provides a reliable estimate of the decibel levels inside chosen class rooms of three selected schools of Tiruchiurapalli, Tamilnadu, India. The students and teachers of all the above schools felt that their school environments were noisy which interfered with their learning / teaching activities. Based on the self reported health status, audiometric tests were conducted on selected students suspected to have hearing problems, which revealed that the chosen children suffer from mild to moderate hearing impairment. In all the schools studied, the ambient sound levels were found to be above the threshold limit of 50 dB (A) for a silent zone prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board, India.