LADIES and gentlemen the station you are currently standing in could be bad for your health.

Southampton researchers say that railway stations across Hampshire could be putting passengers’ health at risk.

Waiting for a train, walking around a museum, reading in a library, even going to school – these are all public places where there may be ultrasound causing damage to people’s health, claim the city scientists.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have discovered that the public are being exposed to airborne ultrasound without their knowledge .

The team found that increasing exposure to locations like railway stations and sports stadiums led to more complaints from customers of nausea, dizziness, migraines, fatigue and tinnitus.

Ultrasounds in public places can be generated from a number of sources including loudspeakers, door sensors and public address systems.

Now a Southampton professor is calling for further research and a change in the current guidelines for levels of ultrasound in public areas.

For a number of years, workers who have been regularly exposed to occupational ultrasound after using industrial devices for cleaning and drilling have reported similar negative effects to those now reported by members of the public.

Study author Professor Tim Leighton has now said that current guidelines and research knowledge for occupational safe levels are inadequate to cope with the current mass exposure of large numbers of people.

Professor Leighton, from the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, said: “Existing guidelines are insufficient for such large public exposures as the vast majority refer to occupational exposure, where workers are aware of the exposure, can be monitored and can wear protection. Furthermore, the guidelines are based on the average response of small group, often of adult males.”

Using smart phones and tablets equipped with an app that produced a spectrogram of the microphone reading, Professor Leighton collected readings of very high frequency/ultrasonic fields (VHF/US) in a number of public buildings, at a time when they were occupied by hundreds of people.

The findings were then calibrated with two or three independent microphone and audio data systems.

Professor Leighton found that members of the public were exposed to VHF/US levels over 20 kHz, which is the threshold of the current guidelines.

He added: “Individuals who are unlikely to be aware of such exposures are complaining, for themselves and their children, of a number of negative conditions.

“Recent data suggests that one in 20 people aged 40-49 years have hearing thresholds that are at least 20 decibels more sensitive at 20 kHZ than that of the average 30-39-year-old. Moreover, five per cent of the 5-to-19 years age group is reported to have a 20 kHz threshold that is 60 dB more sensitive than the median for the 30-39 years age group.

“The lack of research means that it is not possible to prove or disprove the public health risk or discomfort. However, it is important that sufferers are able to identify the true cause of their symptoms, whether they result from VHF/US exposure or not.”

Professor Leighton suggests the current guidelines, which only apply for the workplace, should be expanded to include guidelines for public or residential exposure and recommends taking a survey of modern devices and their source levels.

A full list of the guidelines and research recommendations can be found in the university study, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A.