Wasted Time
There’s been a lot of handwringing over the twice-yearly switch between standard time and daylight saving time. The Congress has found time from its busy schedule of doing nothing to horn in on the subject. The president too has a strong opinion about the switch. The only opinion that seems to have no purchase is one based on rational analysis.
The American Heart Association has entered the lists. In an article starting with the large type ominous warning:
Here’s your wake-up call: Daylight saving time may impact your heart health
The AHA then cites a few studies that describe an increase in strokes and heart attacks during the switch to daylight saving time from standard time.
“We don’t really know exactly why there is an increase in heart attacks and strokes during the change to daylight saving time. It’s likely connected with the disruption to the body’s internal clock, or its circadian rhythm,” said American Heart Association volunteer expert Maria Delgado-Lelievre, M.D., a distinguished Hypertension Specialist at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.
The Michigan study cited by the AHA found a 24% increase on the Monday after the spring change in heart attacks treated by coronary intervention, but no increase in the total for the week. The Finnish stroke study likewise found an increase in ischemic stroke admissions in the first two days after clock changes, but no statistically significant increase over the full week. The AHA highlights Monday. What happened during the rest of the week?
Let’s follow this reasoning to its logical conclusion. Scores of millions of travelers, likely more, cross one or more time zones every day. They ought to be falling like autumn leaves during their travels. A frequent flier card should be a death sentence. Yet besides the inconvenience of jet lag they seem to be able to achieve the purpose of their peripatetic activities with minimal effect on their health. Crossing a time zone seems to present more risk from the failure of a person’s means of travel than from the sudden change of the traveler’s watch. Will the plane crash, will the boat sink, or will the car wreck? These are where the risk of a time change lies.
Since Congress and the president can’t resist meddling in trifles, here are a few subjects on which they and the American Heart Association might issue pronunciamentos.
First comes a question of real importance. Is a hot dog a sandwich? If it is, does it become more dangerous?
Another important one that has wrecked marriages is which way the toilet paper should hang. Either arrangement dispenses the paper. A household cat is one of the few participants with a practical interest in the outcome.
Does pineapple belongs on pizza? The person who ordered it intends to eat it. How the rest of us acquired jurisdiction is unclear.
The preseason college football poll: People argue over whether a team belongs at No. 7 or No. 9 before it has played a game. The weakest wit on the reporting staff used to be the music critic, but he’s been replaced by the staff at the sports desk.
These questions should keep Congress, the president, and the American Heart Association occupied for some time. Meanwhile, the sun will continue to rise and set without consulting any of them.
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