GA House Rules Cmte: Oppose HB 44

An open letter to the Georgia House Rules Committee, submitted by email to each member, in opposition to HB 44 (Cantrell). Linked references to inline citations are listed at the end.

2021 February 1

Georgia House Committee on Rules
HM-1 State Capitol
Atlanta, Georgia 30334

Re: HB 44 (Daylight Saving Time), Oppose

Dear Honorable Representative,

Thank you for your service in the House Rules Committee. Please oppose HB 44 (Cantrell), refer it to the Health, Safety, or Education Committees, or advise its amendment from permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST) to permanent Standard Time. Permanent DST darkens mornings, forces overly early waking, deprives sleep, lowers alertness, increases illness and accidents, and proves unpopular after being experienced. Permanent Standard Time is the quickest, fairest, and only viable end to clock change.

Scores of organizations representing millions of scientists, doctors, teachers, and parents oppose both seasonal and permanent DST and endorse permanent Standard Time. These include the Southern Sleep Society, National PTA, National Education Association, National Safety Council, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, American Federation of Teachers, National School Boards Association, American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Start School Later, American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, and Society for Research on Biological Rhythms.[AASM][CSC][ESRS][Ripley][RIVM][SRBR] Permanent DST’s support comes mainly from a few profit-motivated, special-interest industries.[Watson]

Healthy sleep is essential to viral immunity (including COVID),[Meira][Panda][Ray & Reddy] and for years the CDC has classified sleep deprivation as a nationwide epidemic.[Jin] Springing clocks forward to DST acutely deprives sleep. Leaving clocks forward on DST chronically deprives sleep (average 19 minutes nightly). An hour delay of sunrise each day manifests as statistically significant increases in accidents, diseases (cancers up 12–36%), and healthcare costs, and as statistically significant decreases in education, productivity, and wages (down 3–5%). It’s not just clock change that harms. Standard Time preserves morning sunlight, when human biology needs it most.[AASM]​[Borisenkov]​[CSC][Curtis][ESRS][Gibson][Giuntella][Gu][Jenkins]​[Juda]​[RIVM]​[Roenneberg]​[SRBR]​[Watson]

Permanent Standard Time is pre-approved by the US 1966 Uniform Time Act, while permanent DST is federally forbidden.[Sheeler][Skelton][Watson] Scientific polling shows strong public support to end clock change, with slight preference for Standard Time.[AP] History shows public support for permanent DST reverses to opposition once its dark winter mornings are experienced.[BBC][Ripley][Yorkshire]

Permanent DST would delay sunrise in Georgia up to 8:47am, and past 8am up to 4.3 months. Biologists urge school should start no earlier than 8am Standard Time — which is 9am DST. Permanent DST would undo the benefits of starting school later, and disrupt parents’ work hours.[Cell Press]​[Skeldon & Dijk] Standard Time keeps sunrises before 8am, when most work/school starts,[CDC][Silver] for healthier sunlight exposure, circadian alignment, sleep, alertness, immunity, and productivity.

Please oppose HB 44, forward it to the Health, Safety, or Education Committees, or advise its amendment to permanent Standard Time. I would be glad to speak or testify about this bill, or to put you in contact with members of the scientific community. Thank you for hearing these concerns.

Sincerely yours,

Jay Pea
Save Standard Time
PO Box 40238
San Francisco, California 94140

American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2020). “Call for Elimination of Daylight Saving Time”. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. https://aasm.org/american-academy-of-sleep-medicine-calls-for-elimination-of-daylight-saving-time/

AP-NORC (2019). “Daylight Saving Time vs Standard Time”. Center for Public Affairs Research. https://apnorc.org/projects/daylight-saving-time-vs-standard-time/

BBC (2014). “Russia: Putin Abolishes ‘Daylight Savings’ Time Change”. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28423647

Borisenkov et al (2016). “Seven-Year Survey of Sleep Timing in Russian Children and Adolescents”. Biological Rhythm Research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307547013_Seven-year_survey_of_sleep_timing_in_Russian_children_and_adolescents_chronic_1-h_forward_transition_of_social_clock_is_associated_with_increased_social_jetlag_and_winter_pattern_of_mood_seasonality

Canadian Society for Chronobiology (2019). “Turn Back the Clock on Daylight Savings: Why Standard Time All Year Round Is the Healthy Choice”. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-turn-back-the-clock-on-daylight-savings-why-standard-time-all-year/

Cell Press Staff (2019). “Permanent Daylight Savings May Cancel Out Changes to School Start Times”. EurekAlert!. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/cp-pds041819.php

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). “School Start Times for Middle School and High School Students — United States, 2011–12 School Year”. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a1.htm

Curtis (2019). “Daylight Saving Time: Harmed by Hands of the Clock”. The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/daylight-saving-time-harmed-by-hands-of-the-clock-1.4064179

European Sleep Research Society (2018). “Joint Statement”. To the EU Commission on DST. https://esrs.eu/joint-statement-to-the-eu-commission/

Gibson & Shrader (2015). “Time Use and Productivity: The Wage Returns to Sleep”. Williams College Department of Economics Working Papers. https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wilwileco/2015-17.htm

Giuntella & Mazzonna (2017). “Sunset Time and the Economic Effects of Social Jetlag Evidence from US Time Zone Borders”. Journal of Health Economics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629618309718

Gu et al (2017). “Longitude Position in a Time Zone and Cancer Risk in the United States”. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. https://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/26/8/1306

Jin & Ziebarth (2019). “Sleep, Health, and Human Capital: Evidence from Daylight Saving Time”. The National Bureau of Economic Research. https://ideas.repec.org/p/yor/hectdg/15-27.html

Juda et al (2019). “An Open Letter to the BC Government in Support of Permanent Standard Time”. Simon Fraser University. https://vault.sfu.ca/index.php/s/sAnv3Z4bcSwY4Gm

Meira e Cruz et al (2020). “Putative contributions of circadian clock and sleep in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection”. European Respiratory Journal. https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/6/2001023

Panda (2020). “Beyond Sanitizing and Social Distancing — A Healthy Circadian Rhythm May Keep You Sane and Increase Resilience to Fight COVID-19”. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/beyond-sanitizing-and-social-distancing-a-healthy-circadian-rhythm-may-keep-you-sane-and-increase-resilience-to-fight-covid-19-135535

Ray & Reddy (2020). “COVID-19 Management in Light of the Circadian Clock”. Nature Reviews. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-020-0275-3

Ripley (1974). “Senate Votes Return to Standard Time for Four Months and Sends Bill to Ford”. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/01/archives/senate-votes-return-to-standard-time-for-four-months-and-sends-bill.html

RIVM (2019). “Standard Time More Beneficial for Public Health Than Summer Time”. Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu. https://www.rivm.nl/en/news/standard-time-more-beneficial-for-public-health-than-summer-time

Roenneberg et al (2019). “Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones — A Battle Between Biological and Social Times”. Frontiers in Physiology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944/full

Sheeler (2019). “Daylight Saving Time Will Continue in California for Now, as Lawmaker Delays Bill”. Merced Sun–Star. https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/california/article234946067.html

Silver (2014) “Which Cities Sleep In, and Which Get to Work Early”. FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-cities-sleep-in-and-which-get-to-work-early/

Skeldon & Dijk (2019). “School Start Times and Daylight Saving Time Confuse California Lawmakers”. Current Biology. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30312-4

Skelton (2018). “Year-Round Daylight Saving Time? More Dark Mornings Is Just One Downside”. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-daylight-saving-time-20180705-story.html

Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (2019). “Why Should We Abolish Daylight Saving Time?”. Journal of Biological Rhythms. https://srbr.org/advocacy/daylight-saving-time-presskit/

Watson (2019). “Time to Show Leadership on the Daylight Saving Time Debate”. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6557642/?report=classic

Yorkshire (2018). “British Summer Time: Why Do We Change the Clocks?”. Yorkshire Evening Post. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-summer-time-why-do-we-change-clocks-313791