Results from an eight-city noise survey show that road traffic is a major source of environmental noise pollution in Nigeria. The inter-city "fast moving… traffic noise is characteristically different from the intra-city "congested or slow-moving… traffic noise, though, in many cases, they have comparable day-night levels. Noise from congested traffic was found to contain occasional high peaks, and vary more in levels and be more skewed histographically than that from freely flowing traffic. The statistical distribution for the day time L Aeq value has a fairly normal appearance with a mean of 73 dB "A-weighted… and standard deviation of 5.7 dB. Many respondents to the questionnaires distributed in the cities surveyed consider road traffic as the first or second greatest source of annoyance due to noise. However it is considered the most difficult to control. The findings of the survey provide enough baseline data for engineering controls and interim legislation against traffic noise pollution. © 1998 Institute of Noise Control Engineering. †S0736-2501"98…00604-3 ‡

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Tympanometry and acoustic reflex tests performed on 431 school children aged five to six years showed that eight per cent of the ears screened had type B or type C tympanograms suggestive of otitis media with effusion (1.2 per cent type B, and 6.8 per cent type C). Preliminary otoscopy revealed tympanic membrane appearances consistant with middle ear effusion in a correspondingly low proportion of ears (7.6 per cent), whilst acoustic reflex screening at 105 dB for three frequencies (0.5, 1 and 2 kHz) showed absent reflexes at one or more frequencies in 8.1 per cent of the ears. The findings indicate a relatively low prevalence of otitis media with effusion in children in Nigeria. Possible contributory factors are discussed.

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The pattern of pneumatisation and normal width of the maxillary sinus in 191 Nigerian infants and children whose age range was 6 months to 14 years was determined. Fifty-four percent of children with no respiratory tract or sinus infection had an opaque maxillary sinus. A figure of 44.5% was obtained amongst children with suspected bronchopneumonia. Only 41.5% of suspected cases of sinusitis, acute and chronic middle ear disease had opaque sinuses. The highest rate of sinus opacity was seen in children under 2 years who were asymptomatic. The mean maximal width of the normally aerated sinus was 8.74 mm for children under 2 years, 16.5 mm for 3-6 years, 21.5 mm for 7-11 years and 25 mm for children 12 years and above. We conclude that maxillary sinus opacity in our experience is an unreliable index for the diagnosis of sinusitis in children.