Bills to end daylight saving time change could end insulin pump glitch

Healio ^ | 10/29/20 | Saleh Aladasouqi, MD

[Pining_4_TX]

This Sunday, Nov. 2, will mark the end of daylight saving time for 2020.

I am pleased to share that, finally, serious legislative considerations — in several states — are underway in the quest to end the biannual rituals of changing from standard time to daylight saving time (DST). During the last 3 years, 13 states enacted legislation to provide for year-round daylight saving time if Congress were to allow such a change and, in some cases, if surrounding states would enact the same legislation, according to the website of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Full-time DST is not currently allowed by federal law and would require an act of Congress to make a change.

[Pining_4_TX]

Yet another good reason to stop doing these ridiculous time changes. Just pick one, and stick to it.

[Cold Heart]

I would prefer standard time. The sun should be on the central meridian at noon. But if you can drop one of the colors out of the rainbow you might as well mess with time also.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

This is the only bad idea Benjamin Franklin had. It was a stupid idea at best. Everything else he envisioned was spectacular!

[Pining_4_TX]

Really? They dropped a color from the rainbow?

I would prefer they use the time standard that gives me more daylight in the evening in the gloomy Iowa winters.

[Army Air Corps]

The pumps can’t use GMT?

[Pining_4_TX]

I had no idea it was his idea. Thanks for the history lesson. :-)

[Pining_4_TX]

I guess not, and I don’t know why. Maybe somebody who is familiar with medical equipment like this can explain it.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Sunday, Nov. 2?

[parmamenian]

They said the same thing last year! Nothing will happen. A year from this weekend, we will be turning back our clocks.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I don't care WHY they do it - just do it! Winter is dark enough as it is. Moving the clocks back makes it worse!

[bhive]

We’ve been changing to and from DST my whole life (50+ years). Other than the stupid adjustments made to DST in the past 20 years, it works fine.

Now my grandfather was a dairy farmer and he hated DST and called it a communist invention, but never the less, I like it the way it is.

[Vigilanteman]

A reasonable compromise would be half hour time zones with DST year round. Economically, Pittsburgh (just to name one example) is more tied to the Midwest than the East Coast.

I believe it is why Indiana opts out of DST as well. They have more economic ties to the central time zone as well. A half-hour difference would be far less disruptive and help out large numbers of us in the western part of the eastern time zone.

[Pining_4_TX]

Ah, I see we are in the same boat. It also gets gloomy in the late afternoon even before the sunset. BTW, my sister-in-law saw a shirt that said “Minnesotans for Global Warming”. I need one of those for Iowa. These winters are about to kill me. I’m used to Houston weather.

[beef]

Why don’t they fix the software in the insulin pump? It should adjust automatically.

[Pining_4_TX]

That works for me. Now if only we could get the do-nothing-useful politicians to actually do something useful. :-)

[fwdude]

I can remember when the current protocol was implemented in my elementary school days of Nixon. It screwed us kids up royally (large family of stair-step siblings) when we were getting ready for school. Had to suddenly walk to school in the dark for a few weeks in the spring. Parents HATED it.

[Pining_4_TX]

You are asking the wrong person. I am about as tech challenged as one can be.

[Dr. Sivana]

The sun should be on the central meridian at noon.

I live in Arizona where we don't do time changes (except for some contrarian Indian reservations), but the sun hasn't been on the central meridian at noon in most places since railroad schedules created the need for time zones. Bessemer, MI and Bangor, ME are both in the eastern time zone, but Bangor is well over 1,000 miles east of Bessemer.

[fwdude]

Just part of the curse of living above the Mason-Dixon Line. I’ve heard how early it gets dark for people in New England and can’t believe it.

[PROCON]

Of course in Franklin's day America was an agrarian society and that extra hour of daylight helped the farmers better attend their crops.

Nowadays DST has gone the way of the buggy whip.