Abstract
With the increase in transportation of both men and material, railway transport noise is increasing; having significant influence on environment and human life and may affect the children being regularly exposed to it. In this backdrop, the present study was conducted to assess the impact of railway noise, if any, on auditory status and annoyance level of school going children residing and attending school near railway track. The study was conducted on 42 suburban and 30 urban adolescent females (age 16–18 years), respectively, constituting exposed group 1 and 2 (EG1 and 2) residing in and around Kolkata. 81 females of comparable age, residing in the relatively calm and quiet rural area constituted the control group (CG). The sound pressure level was recorded in different parts of the institutions, where the study was carried out. Audiometric assessment was carried out in comparatively calm and quiet room and the degree of hearing impairment was calculated. The annoyance level was assessed. The results indicate that, EG1 and EG2 individuals had significant (P < 0.05) hearing loss at low and high frequency compared to CG individuals. From the present study, it may be concluded that, school children residing in the vicinity of railway tracks are suffering from bilateral hearing impairment with adverse impact on their annoyance level.
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The authors are thankful to all the volunteers participating in the study and concerned institutional authorities for their kind consent and cooperation.
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Sandipan, C. et al. (2018). A Study on Auditory Status of School Going Children Residing Near Railway Track. In: Ray, G., Iqbal, R., Ganguli, A., Khanzode, V. (eds) Ergonomics in Caring for People. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4980-4_11
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