Traffic police checked for hearing issues

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, dec 24, 2015: Doctors from Nitte Institute of Speech and Hearing on Wednesday conducted medical tests for city traffic police personnel to check hearing problems that could have been resulted from overexposure to high decibel sound.

The testing was part of the campaign by the K.S. Hegde Medical Academy against sound pollution in the city for over a decade.

Launching the exercise on Wednesday, Dean of the academy Sateesh Kumar Bhandary B. said that studies had shown that exposure of people to high decibel sounds for seven hours a day over a period of one week had caused hearing problems.

Dr. Bhandary said that about 20 per cent of autorickshaw drivers and city bus drivers in the city, who have been tested by the institute few months ago, were found to have hearing problems.

T. Dattatreya, principal of the Institute, said traffic police in the city have been exposed to high decibel sounds while manning traffic in the busy junctions. Over exposure to high decibel sound was one among the reasons leading to gradual decrease in hearing.

Police Commissioner S. Murugan said apart from booking cases against motorists for violating traffic norms and using of shrill horns police and Transport Department personnel should make violators aware of harm caused due sound and air pollution. “We have been breathing polluted air in the city. We have to make efforts to reduce the effect,” he said.

As many as 180 traffic police personnel will be undergoing tests on Wednesday and Thursday.

After preliminary test of the ear, the personnel are subjected to two audiometric tests for knowing the middle ear condition and hearing ability. Dr. Dattatreya said police personnel are advised to make less use of mobile phones and provided with other techniques to prevent them from overexposure to high decibel sound.

Dr. Bhandary said the Academy will shortly start noise pollution awareness campaign in schools.