This publication could be one of several versions: author’s original, accepted manuscript or the publisher’s version. / La version de cette publication peut etre l’une des suivantes : la version prepublication de l’auteur, la version acceptee du manuscrit ou la version de l’editeur. For the publisher’s version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l’editeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous.

NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRC

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of high-frequency aircraft noise on the function of the auditory system of school-age children. A total of 228 students attending a school near an airport (school A) and 151 students attending a school far from an airport (school B) were analyzed. Audiometry and brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) detection were performed in all subjects to evaluate cochlear and retrocochlear function. The results of audiometry indicated that hearing ability was significantly worse in the children of school A, which was located under the flight paths. The values of pure tone average, high pure tone average, and threshold at 4 kHz were all higher in children who were frequently exposed to aircraft noise. There was no consistent difference in BAEP latencies between the two schools. These results indicate that central transmission is not affected in children who have been exposed to aircraft noise for several years. The results of the present study showed a significant association between aircraft noise exposure and prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss. Although damage to peripheral cochlear organs was confirmed in school-age children, involvement of the central auditory pathway could not be verified.

Effects of aircraft noise on hearing and auditory pathway function of school-age children.

The relationship between aircraft noise, loss of hearing, and annoyance was explored in a study in two schools located near an international airport in Taiwan. Sixth-grade students (N = 242) were recruited from two schools and were classified into high-and low-noise-exposure groups, based on environmental noise measurements. Personal-equivalent 24-h noise exposure was measured to determine noise exposure at the individual level, and it was compared with hearing threshold level and with aircraft noise measured at the environmental level. Individual hearing threshold levels did not differ between environmental high- and low-noise-exposure groups, as evidenced by the lack of difference between the two groups for noise exposure measured at the individual level. However, the proportion of students who were annoyed by aircraft noise was higher in the environmental high-noise-exposure group, although personal 24-h noise exposure was not a factor for annoyance. The results indicated that environmental no...

Aircraft noise, hearing ability, and annoyance

Noise due to take o s and landings at airports a ects 0.6 million people at European level, causing average Lden values above 55 dB outside urban areas. This scenario represents a much smaller proportion if compared with the one caused by road and rail tra c noise, although aircraft noise is considered by citizens as more annoying than the other noise sources. Currently, some of the open research topics, which are the most highlighted in the scienti c literature concerning aircraft noise, regard the need to test the new CNOSSOS EU calculation method proposed by the EU Directive 2015/996, to be mandatory adopted by EU Member States within 2022, and the exposition of children to noise together with the development of speci c curves of annoyance. The CNOSSOS EU calculation method de nes new algorithms for creating strategic noise maps for road, railway, aircraft and industrial noise. The new calculation method should be adapted to national legislation before the end of 2018, and applied in the next round of 2021/2022. Concerning this rst open issue, technicians and experts are requested at EU level to test in simple pilot cases the new introduced calculation methods and the software in which they are implemented. Consequently, in the current work a simulation of the CNOSSOS EU calculation method has been carried out by considering as aircraft noise source the A.Vespucci airport in Florence and comparing the outputs with those obtained by applying the well established INM calculation standard. Moreover, both models have been validated according to a noise measurement campaign carried out in correspondence of one of the public buildings closest to the airport's runway, speci cally a building of the University of Florence located in Sesto Fiorentino. Concerning the second thematic, contrasting outcomes have been obtained from already carried out studies, in terms of cognitive tests results and possibilities for children to develop resilience skills together with coping mechanisms. Moreover, until now tests have been mainly carried out during the normal course of lessons, without the possibility of controlling the time relative to the passage of the individual aircraft. Finally, new and updated curves of annoyance speci c for children need to be introduced and evaluated. In the Manuscript a schematic protocol to support the application of the new developed methodology in further pilot cases contributing to the cited open issues is illustrated, together with the deep description of each phase of the method, according to the experience carried out during the research. Moreover, the application of the method to the two selected pilot schools is described, together with the phases of data acquisition and analysis. Due to the PhD activity's timing and available resources, the application of the developed method to the pilot cases and the consequent collection and analysis of the data have constituted only a rst

Study of children's exposure to aircraft noise at school and application of a new method to pilot cases in proximity to the A.Vespucci airport in Florence (Italy).

HIS PAPER does not describe the causes of T environmental noise nor does it catalogue the -~technological or economic strategies for its control ; it however, does discuss the ways in which this noise affects us, and summarises various techniques which have been developed to quantify these effects. The title refers to community response, and this is defined to include physiological, psychological, and social actions expressed in terms of a number of factors,

Methods of assessing community response to environmental noise.

: Audiograms and other data related to ear conditions and noise exposure were obtained from residents drawn from two neighborhoods in the greater Los Angeles area. One community bordered Los Angeles International Airport and had been subjected over the years to frequent takeoff noise of high level. Maximum rms measurements of these aircraft sounds outdoors in this neighborhood ranged from 76 to 101 dBA with a median of 88 dBA. The second community was similar to the airport one in demography but free of significant aircraft noise intrusion. Noise levels here rarely exceeded 60 dBA and commonly were 50 dBA or less. Both groups displayed average hearing levels as good and at certain frequencies slightly better than estimates obtained from the National Health Survey of 1960-1962. The overall findings did not make it possible to draw firm conclusions about community aircraft noise exposure as a cause of the apparent differences in hearing levels between the two groups.

/pdf/evaluation-of-hearing-levels-of-residents-living-near-a-19s7nhnd8f.pdf

A. Cohen

Papers

Evaluation of Hearing Levels of Residents Living Near a Major Airport