Paper Title
Assessment Of Noise Pollution Effects On Traffic Policemen At Duhok City, Kurdistan Region – Iraq
Abstract
Noise pollution considers as one the most important problems of urban areas due to the high number of vehicles
introduced to the streets each year producing a noisy sound and having negative effects on neighbor houses in general and
traffic policemen specifically both physically and psychologically. This study aims to evaluate the noise pollution dose that
the traffic policemen receive during their working hours, indicating the main sources of noise pollution in traffic-light
junctions and the main streets and their psychological and physiological effects on traffic policemen. Twelve locations in
Duhok city, Kurdistan region – Iraq were used during this study, ten traffic-light junctions “four outside the city center and
six outside the downtown” besidesthe two main streets in the city center in the period between February and April 2015 in
two different days “a working day and a vacation day”. The digital Sound Level Meter (SLM), Model AR824 was used
beside a well-designed questionnaire containing seventeen questions with different kinds of questions regarding their age,
education, period of exposure to noise, quality of hearing, using of personal protection equipments and different types of
psychological and physical effects caused by noise pollution. The results from the questionnaire were showed that 100% of
the selected traffic policemen were suffering daily from exhaustion after finishing their work, while headache, nervous and
sleep disturbance were coming in the second place in which 80% of them having a daily suffering from them, anxiety came
in the third place. The highest reading of noise was in Binavi fuel station junction during the morning hours with (Lmax:
102.4 dBA) in a working day while the lowest reading was recorded with (Lmin: 63.3 dBA) in Shaqlawa Pizza street inside
the city center.The results showed a difference between Leq for the junctions located inside the city center in compare to the
outside city center with P value of P = 0.01.There was also a clear relationship between mean Leq of (Leq= 79.8 dBA) and
(Leq = 72.6 dBA) during morning hours for a working day and vacation day respectivelyand the psychological problems that
affects the traffic policemen. The research concluded that there is a clear difference in the noise pollution between a working
day and a vacation day and also between the traffic-light junctions located inside the city center where the big vehicles were
restricted to a cross and the junctions located outside the city center.
Keywords- Noise Pollution, Psychological And Physiological Effects, Traffic Noise Pollution, Traffic Policemen.