An-Najah Staff

This study reports the association of noise pollution level with blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), pulse rate and hearing threshold in school children. The schools were selected randomly as to represent quiet (Seida village, 77.8 - 85.2 dB(A)), noisy (Nablus city, 92.2 — 96.1 dB(A)), and very noisy, (Tulkarm refugees camp,100.4 — 108 dB(A)) localities. Strong positive correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient) was found between noise pollution level and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, and hearing threshold at different frequencies. The mean systolic and diastolic lblood pressure for the two sexes are correlated positively with the noise pollution level (R=0.521 and 0.440, respectively). The hearing threshold levels of different frequencies correlated positively with the noise pollution level (R= 0.114 to 0.267; where p<0.05).