Abstract

More than 16,000 employees of day care centres and close to 85,000 children are exposed daily to often excessive noise levels which can be above 90 decibels over short periods. In response to a request from the Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail du secteur affaires sociales (ASSTSAS) and the CSST, the company Soft dB Inc. was given the mandate to determine the impact of reducing the reverberation time on noise reduction and to propose effective and economical solutions. After measuring the acoustical characteristics of some twenty day care centres, the firm proposed solutions that have been implemented and then validated in some ten centres. The data collected and results obtained have served as a basis for a guide for day care centres on how to reduce noise on their premises. This guide will be produced and distributed by ASSTSAS, in collaboration with the CSST.