DST-Hating Reps in Washington State Vote To 'Ditch the Switch' (komonews.com)

In the state of Washington, the House has voted 89 to 7 to "ditch the switch, bring the light, and defeat the dark night," says one representative. KOMO reports: Changing the clocks twice a year impacts the body's natural rhythms and is associated with a spike in heart attacks, strokes, and traffic collisions each year, according to the Washington State Department of Health's impact review. Extended daylight in the evening is also better for kids who play sports or who are active outside, Riccelli said. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.... The federal government would have the final say.
And meanwhile, one Pennsylvania newspaper has published a state representative's op-ed calling for Pennsylvania to help lead the resistance in America's Eastern Standard Time zone, complaining that "This weekend, we again will be forced to comply with an archaic tradition, one that offers no benefits." There is no national crisis that changing clocks helps to alleviate. In fact, there are more negative side effects from changing clocks than benefits. Studies have shown that automobile accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, miscarriages, depression, and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes.

This government-mandated interruption of natural biological rhythms and sleep cycles can wreak havoc on job performance, academic results, and overall physical/mental health. Clock changes require farmers to make needless adjustments, as crops and animals live by the sunlight... During this legislative session, I will be working to advance this commonsense legislation that will not only end the antiquated ritual of changing clocks, but will also help preserve the health, safety, well-being, productivity, and lives of Pennsylvanians.

Comments

But think of the children!

[skids]

The only source of potential pushback I'm aware on this is parents who don't want their kids waiting for the bus in the dark (that happens with the DST-all-year option) Which they may not realize until after they've lived with it. The standard-time-all-year option ends up with everyone driving hoe from work in the dark more days per year. Let the royal rumble commence.

We of course could effectively have the DST-all-year solution and stay on standard time if all businesses and government offices changed their hours. Good luck with that.

Re:But think of the children!

[93 Escort Wagon]

Those parents will just have to grit their teeth and stop imagining every bad thing in the world that could possibly happen to their children.

The Seattle Times has a better article regarding the proposed change.

As that article points out, 'a survey by the National Safety Council of 42 states and the District of Columbia that found daylight saving time had “little or no effect on the number of early-morning traffic fatalities among schoolchildren.”'.

That article also points out that, here in Washington state, kids are already standing out in the dark waiting for their busses for a short part of the year. If people are that concerned about it, they should convince the schools to change their schedules.

Re:I was around when the USA did this, it was hell

[R.Mo_Robert]

I was around the last time the USA got rid of daylight-savings time, in 1973-1975. It was total hell. Children went to school in pitch darkness and bitter cold, and people drove to work in the dark. I can't imagine who would want this again. You get rid of a one-hour change for a much worse difficulty every day for months on end.

These days, many more working people travel regularly than in 1973, when jet travel was so unreachable for the common man that rich people were called the "jet set". Most working people today deal with much worse than a one-hour change on a regular basis.

Technically, that was actually year-round Daylight Saving Time, i.e., elimination of standard time, not elimination of DST. But the first link suggests that's also what is proposed here (they technically don't hate DST, just the change--and so-called "standard time," in which we actually now spend less time of the year in than DST--is usually the one people object to). This would indeed make the morning sunrise later with respect to the clock, an issue in winter for many regions of the US, the argument usually being that children would go to school in the dark in the morning (I'm not sure the "going to work" argument would hold up since where I live, it's already dark after work during standard time by late November, so it's either one or the other).

Re:The very term Daylight Saving Time shows ignora

[CrankyOldEngineer]

You know the purpose of time zones is so that every area has solar noon at around noon on the clock (more or less). If you live in a northern latitude, you get more daylight in the summer, and less in the winter. Big deal. Most people I know get up around 5am, so yeah, if I lived in New York or Chicago, during a month per year the sun would rise before I did. Big f'ing deal. That's better than the semi-annual diruption.