[Evaluation of school noise by teachers and assessment of its effect on health and general feeling].

Internal noise related mainly to the activities and overcrowding of schools is the main source of teachers' discomfort. It causes negative feelings and generates various hindrances at work in 80.2% of women and 67% of men. for a substantial part of the teachers' milieu (42.1% of women and 32.3% of men), noise is the dominant element among the whole complex of adverse professional factors. In schools with a higher noise level, the number of teachers assessing negatively the acoustic climate of schools increases, and the intensity of discomfort is enhanced. This is associated with awareness of excessive vocal effort, as well as with intensification of discomfort symptoms and of negative emotions. The group of teachers working under more adverse acoustic conditions is characterized by higher incidence of irritation states, deconcentration of attention, sleepiness, tiredness, depression and headaches. Moreover, there are symptoms on the part of the cardio-vascular, upper respiratory and digestive system, as well as signs of neurosis. Some of these health problems are intensified in smokers.