The International Alliance for Natural Hours (IANT), made up of a group of experts and activists in health, time use and NGOs, including chronobiologists, neuroscientists and economists, have launched a campaign on social networks to make European citizens aware of the negative effects that time changes and adherence to incorrect time zones have on health and the economy.
When the clocks are advanced from 2 to 3 am from Saturday to Sunday morning, according to experts, Spain will be located at the time that, due to its geographical location and proximity to solar time, corresponds to Eastern countries, such as Ukraine. .
“During the last thirty years, more and more studies and scientific publications have shown the negative impacts of living in the wrong time zone in terms of energy savings, the risk of cancer and other diseases, the performance of workers and students, or the GDP, among other aspects,” they say.
And they underline that, despite this, the European Union has not finished putting an end to this practice of changing the time twice a year because certain myths and erroneous beliefs persist in this regard, such as saving energy.
“Recent studies indicate that either they have no effect or, worse, daylight saving time can make us spend more energy because current consumption patterns (which are not those that existed when the time change was introduced in the 20th century) increase spending on heating and cooling”, indicate sources from the IANT, which includes the Barcelona Time Use Initiative (BTUI) and the ARHOE-National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Timetables, among other organizations.
And compared to those who claim that not making the change would harm the economy, especially sectors such as tourism, leisure or commerce, this group of activists recalls that this time system is already causing economic damage because the lack of sleep suffered an important part of the population makes it less productive, there are more accidents at work and more sick leave is recorded. In addition, they say, “it is the summer, the good weather and the fact that the day is longer and not the summer time that drives tourism and leisure.”
On the other hand, they remember that changing the time forces people to modify their habits twice a year and does not allow them to keep them well adjusted to the person’s own circadian rhythms.
To avoid these negative effects, a group of experts collaborating with the BTUI already presented last October a proposal for permanent time zones based on the geographical situation of each country and a transition plan that would have made it possible to permanently eliminate time changes. in all EU states this coming autumn.
To do this, they proposed dividing Europe into four large time zones: the Azores (which would include Ireland and Portugal), the Western European (in which Spain would be integrated along with France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands), the European Central (which would correspond to Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden and Denmark, among others), Eastern Europe (which would mark the clocks of Finland, Romania or Ukraine, among others) and the Moscow time zone.
According to this plan, now, in March 2023, all countries would maintain the time they had been using in winter and for those that coincided with that of the recommended time zone, it would be enough to enjoy a permanent time.
For those who did not (Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain), the second step would be to set their clocks back one last time next autumn, thereby all adjusting to the time of the night. area that corresponds to them by geographical location.
This proposal -explains Ariadna Güell, promoter of the group that developed it and co-coordinator of the BTUI-, would contribute to improving health, the economy, safety and sustainability and is in line with the conditions pre-established by the European Commission to end with the time changes in the EU.
For this reason, the International Alliance for Natural Timetables urges the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to add this issue to the political agenda during the semester in which Spain will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU, so that it can continue to be debated and a final decision is to be made in 2024 during the Belgian and Dutch presidencies.
“Spain is one of the countries that suffers the most from the negative consequences of the time change as a result of a decision that drags on from the time of France and that causes us to be in a time slot throughout the year that is not ours by nature,” he emphasizes. Marta Junqué, co-coordinator of the BTUI.
