Abstract

Over the last few years, many school bus drivers have complained about the high level of noise associated with their work. Except for a study carried out in 1993 by the occupational health department of a CLSC, few data were available on this subject. This study, carried out by the IRSST at the request of the Association du transport écolier du Québec (ATEQ), is a first in estimating the risks of deafness faced by these workers.
The authors measured the drivers’ noise exposure and estimated the daily dose of noise received. They also evaluated the importance of total exposure in relation to reference values as well as the respective contributions of the different sources of noise. Result analysis shows that school bus driving does not present a serious threat for occupational deafness.