Reverberation noise exposure in polish school gyms

Authors:

• Piotr Stefan Pękala,
• P. Leśna

Abstract

The noise exposure of children and teachers in school gyms is commonly considered as a potential problem. However, there are very few experimental data available, reporting noise impact during a lesson in a gym on speech intelligibility, teacher's voice disorders and overall noise exposure. The survey was conducted in 16 gyms of different volume, shape and sound absorptivity. Acoustic emissions of many types of activity were recorded and analysed. A maximum sound level of more than 90 dBA and activity-related overall sound level exceeding 80 dBA is reported in many cases. The measured reverberation times were almost always (except 2 gyms) much beyond 2.5 [s] giving reverberation ratios at a level of less than 1 [m] and very poor intelligibility measures. Most teachers reported articulation problems during and after lessons in a gym. However, very few of them had already begun medical treatment of larynx.