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Once again, it seems that much of the legislation we see in state and national politics to change daylight saving time are driven by business interests rather than health and goodwill.
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This piece in @theatlantic sums up some of the concerns, noting that “changing of the clocks is wasteful, unnecessary, and even dangerous.”
theatlantic.com/national/archi…
theatlantic.com/national/archi…
As I’ve mentioned before, moving to permanent daylight saving time may not be easily implemented on devices that are no longer supported and don't receive updated rules: this includes computers, mobile phones, embedded devices, connected systems and services. 3/
For instance, older operating systems that are out of support (such as the venerable Windows XP) no longer receive updates which include the updated set of worldwide time zones and daylight saving offsets. 4/
The venerable @latimes calls out a “2001 study by the California Energy Commission estimated that there might be small savings in energy usage by sticking with permanent daylight saving time.“ energy.ca.gov/reports/2001-0… 5/
I agree with the caveat in the article that California should enact permanent daylight saving only if the rest of the States follow suit... 6/ 
... just as other Western states have similar legislation posed, which would be implemented if it is sanctioned at the Federal level. 7/ nwpb.org/2019/01/30/yay…
But permanent DST is not a slam dunk. In this piece from @mariahbaughn, Pathology Department chair at Scripps Memorial Hospital, summarizes some of the challenges that “could compound the sleep deprivation problem for kids” 8/ sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commen…
Baughn calls out something I’ve read previously, in that the oft cited increased incidents of heart attacks just after the Spring forward is offset by the decreases in the Fall by virtually the same amount. “When you take sleep away from people, it’s really bad for health.” 9/
Dr. Judith Wurtman pointed out that “the increased hour of darkness in the morning resulting from not switching to Standard Time may potentiate symptoms of a winter depression or seasonal affective disorder.” 10/ psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-an…
Eliminating the time changes across North America (not just the States) could help to improve the situation. Assuming such a change passed in the U.S., work would remain to enact parallel legislation for our neighbours to the North and South. 11/
The piece last fall in @bopinion asserted “good reasons to stick to one schedule or the other — and daylight saving time is the better choice.” 12/ bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
Russia faced similar concerns in 2011 when the government decided not “fall back” and remain on perpetual “Summer Time” — and I outlined a few interesting facts on DST. 13/ blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mthree/2011/04…
(At the time we documented Microsoft’s activities related to the end of daylight saving time in the Russian Federation) 14/ blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2011/09/2…
(Fast forward to 2014 and the move by the Russian Federation to permanently switch to Winter Time) 15/ blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mthree/2014/08…
Back to the pros and cons. @PopMech has a current post that covers some of the recent research and covers some of the groups in favour and against DST. 16/ popularmechanics.com/science/enviro…
If a change is mandated, it should be one that allows for global coordination and enough time (!) to implement the change. More on that later 17/17
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