Pr. Betsy Busch 4/7/2024
Public Comment
WHAT NEIGHBORS WHO LIVE NEAR PICKLEBALL COURTS
SAY ABOUT THEIR PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH
Romito, K. M. and Fink, D. (2025).
"Pickleball noise: The physiological and psychological effects on nearby residents." Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, volume 56: 050001. https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0002030. Acoustical Society of America.
1. THEY REPORT PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS:
CARDIAC, NEUROLOGICAL and GASTROINTESTINAL SYMPTOMS
and DISRUPTED SLEEP
Total number of comments (113)
Gastrointestinal (3) Phantom Pops (21)
Sleep
Neurologic
Disrupted Sleep (29)-
- Hypersensitivity to sound (10)
Cardiac, other (4)
-- Headache (9)
Cardiac
Hard to concentrate (8)
Fast/irregular heart rate (9)
Neuro, other (4)
High blood pressure (16)
Figure 5. Self-reported physical symptoms from pickleball noise exposure
2. THEY REPORT PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS:
ELEVATED STRESS, ANXIETY, DEPRESSION,
PTSD-LIKE SYMPTOMS and SEVERE DISTRESS
Total number of comments (133)
Depression (5)
Anxiety (22)
Mental Health
Stress (21)
_Severe distress (35)
Red Flag
Feels like PTSD (15)
Trauma
—feels like torture (23)
Hypervigilance (1)
Nightmares (3)
Trauma (8)
1 Figure 6. Self-reported psychological symptoms from pickleball noise exposure.
Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Vol. 56, 050001(2025). Page 6
3. THEY REPORT "SEVERE DISTRESS:"
MENTAL and PHYSICAL ANGUISH and DEBILITATION,
PICKLEBALL NOISE LIKENED TO "TORTURE,"
SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, "HELL"
TABLE 2.
A SAMPLE OF COMMENTS
FROM RESIDENTS REPORTING "SEVERE DISTRESS"
"Extreme anguish"
"The pain, suffering and mental anguish is unbearable.
Someday, the perpetrators of this nightmare will pay."
"Pickleball noise is worse than dying of cancer."
(from a dying cancer patient, now deceased)
"I cannot live a normal life...for me, it's hell."
"Suicidal thoughts."
"It makes me want to splatter my own brains all over the screaming, yelling players 20 feet from my bedroom."
"Beyond distressing."
"The slow, 'un-alive-ing' of a person."
"This dangerous, involuntary noise torture experiment ran its full course. Now please stop it."
"I was told to kill myself, or move."
"You feel as if someone is constantly punching your head." (this resident went on a hunger strike)
"I am not sure what I can do, other than move from my home of 24 years, because this play is seriously affecting my mental health." "No one would choose to live this way. It is physically and emotionally debilitating."
"YOU CAN'T TAKE POP, POP, POP FOR 12 HOURS A DAY,
EVERY DAY, AND REMAIN SANE."
- Engineer and pickleball noise expert Bob Unetich
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1181246866/pickleball-noise-problem-courts-bats-play