Physical education teachers at risk of hearing damage, noise in gym halls often too loud

Extremely shocked

“We were extremely shocked by this, and I also find it serious that physical education teachers who do such important work currently do not actually have a safe working environment,” researcher Saskia Tuinder told the journalistic platform Pointer (KRO-NCRV). “Our initial measurements show that there are exceedances in all the halls studied. We are talking about sound levels above 80 decibels, but in some of the halls studied, the meter even reached 88 dB or 92 dB.” This is a sound comparable to a train rushing past.

Hearing problems among physical education teachers

And that excessive noise can have consequences for physical education teachers’ hearing, Tuinder concludes. As part of her research, she also conducted hearing tests on 70 physical education teachers. “You can already see indications among some of the teachers we tested that their hearing has deteriorated slightly. Compared with people of the same age, they more often have a dip in hearing sensitivity around 6000 hertz, which is precisely where noise-induced hearing loss begins to develop,” the researcher explains.

Jorieke Steenaart of the Royal Association for Physical Education (KVLO) is not surprised by the research results. The professional association has been receiving complaints about poor acoustics for years and previously conducted a survey among its members. “Fifty-eight percent of our members (in primary education, 52% in secondary education) say they suffer from poor acoustics,” says Steenaart. This leads to fatigue, hearing problems and sometimes even absence from work.

Disputes over responsibility

Steenaart estimates that between 2,000 and 3,000 halls have poor acoustics. Nevertheless, too little has been done to improve this for years, she observes. The problem is that the school, as the teacher’s employer, is responsible for a safe and healthy working environment, while the municipality is often the owner of the gym hall. “In practice, we see that this leads to a great deal of wrangling, and ultimately the teacher suffers because nothing happens,” says Steenaart.

Now that Tuinder’s research has laid out the facts so clearly, the municipalities and school boards must truly take responsibility, the professional association believes. “The employer must ensure that there is a healthy and safe workplace, and they must simply enforce that with the municipality or the owner of the gym hall,” says Steenaart.