The Hearing Status and Exposure to Noise of Early Childhood Centre Staff

A study investigated the sound exposure that children and teachers receive in childcare centres. During this study, requests for concurrent work to evaluate the hearing acuity of the teachers resulted in a small extra study. Personal sound exposures were measured on 73 teachers in early childhood education centres and compared to the prescribed levels for workers in the health and safety in employment legislation. Twenty eight teachers in part-time (sessional) centres and 45 teachers in all day centres were tested over one working day. One staff member of a sessional centre and five of those in all day centres received noise exposures well in excess of the 100% maximum daily sound exposure permitted in the workplace. Standard hearing tests were conducted on a small group of 20 teachers including young adults through to those nearing retirement. There was a noticeable increase in noise- induced hearing loss as age increased with significant loss evident in the older participants. The paper argues that if this study has transferability across this teaching population, then potential hearing loss from noise exposure is of concern for early childhood teachers.