Audiometric assessment of urban road traffic noise affected persons: a case study of Surat, India

Abstract

Among all of the sources responsible for noise pollution, traffic related sources are of great environmental concern and increasing level of discomfort in urban areas with increasing traffic concentration. It will be a larger and serious problem in the future, if effective precautions are not taken addressed and attended to. Hence, a study was undertaken to measure the levels of road traffic noise at major intersections of Surat city, located in Western India and assess the hearing impairment among the exposed group of population. Manual noise measurements and vehicle counts were performed at three of the busiest traffic intersections in the city for a period of 12 hours. Audiometric screening was done on 46 urban road traffic noise affected persons, working or staying at these intersections to determine the occurrence of hearing impairment. At all the three intersections, Leq measured was well above the permissible levels of 65 dBA for daytime. The Lmax recorded for three intersections were 84.6 dBA (07:36 PM), 87.3 dBA (06:32 PM) and 85.6 dBA (11:41 AM). Audiometric screening showed that only 10 persons (22%) had normal hearing. slight, moderate and severe hearing impairment was recorded among 13 (28%), 18 (39%) and 5 (11%) persons respectively. Of the total 46 participants, none had profound impairment (deafness, hearing loss > 81 dB). Of the remaining 36 having hearing impairment, 27 had bilateral impairment.