Evansville CourierPress: Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum

The Evansville Courier & Press has an article today titled "Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum".

http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4285801,00.html

Bob Plymire of Evansville has an extensive follow-up comment.

http://www.haloscan.com/comments/courier/03a01time12/

I think the words of a very wise man may apply to Mr. Plymire's comments.

"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him."

I won't try to comment on everything he wrote. In my opinion, much of it falls into the categories of conjecture and personal preference, including which time zone might better provide for the safety of public school children, which might be better for business, for lowering crime, for saving energy, etc.

I agree with Mr. Plymire that a statewide referendum should be unbiased, perhaps asking for a vote between putting the entire state on central, the entire state on eastern, or just leaving it however the DOT rules next month.

Mr. Plymire writes, "... you usually find those people really don't understand what the differnece [sic] between central and eastern time means... WEll, logicly [sic], if you were to look at a map of time zones, they really had to stretch the time zones to get Indiana to be in the central time zone to begin with. Take a look at a time zone map. If you were to compare it to a worldwide map, Indiana is well withing [sic] the eastern time zone."

First, I'm not sure what map he is looking at, but the U.S. Code defines the time zone locations and names. Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX, Sections 261 and 264 read, "the standard time of the first zone shall be based on the mean solar time of the sixtieth degree of longitude west from Greenwich; that of the second zone on the seventy-fifth degree; that of the third zone on the ninetieth degree... The standard time of the first zone shall be known and designated as Atlantic standard time; that of the second zone shall be known and designated as eastern standard time; that of the third zone shall be known and designated as central standard time."

http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/260.html

From this section of federal law, it is pretty obvious that the middle of the eastern zone runs near Philadelphia. The middle of central is near Peoria or St. Louis. The mid-point between the two (82.5 degrees longitude) bisects Ohio around Mansfield. When I check my Rand McNally Road Atlas, I come to the opposite conclusion from Mr. Plymire. The natural time zone boundary runs very near the eastern borders of Michigan and Kentucky. Contrary to Bob's assertion, I have to conclude that where the real stretch came was getting all of Ohio, most of Michigan, and half of Kentucky into the eastern zone.

I present these facts for the enlightenment of those who wish to try to minimize the emotion in this discussion.

Second, I point out that not all studies of the relationship between health and sunlight conclude that more sunlight at the end of the day is better.

For example, a study titled "Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders" by Dr. Daniel R. Wagner finds, "Exposure to light in the morning is an important and probably a crucial element in the treatment of DSPS [delayed sleep phase syndrome]... [and] Avoidance of bright light (>500 lux) from the late afternoon through the evening is advisable."

http://www.treatment-options.com/article.cfm?PubID=NE01-4-1-03&type=Article

Lee Siegel and Stephanie Watson, in an article for the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah, write, "Some research indicates light therapy is more effective if it is synchronized with a patient's internal clock, which is why some patients are treated with exposure to bright light early in the morning."

http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/features/clockgenes/

"A 1998 clinical trial showed that morning light treatment was generally more effective than evening light treatment (Terman et.al.1998) although evening treatment was still more effective than placebo."

http://www.bpkids.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7263

Yet another article says, "In those cases where people cannot fall asleep at night and are unable to get out of bed in the morning, exposing them to bright light at the time they should be awakening gradually resets the sleep pattern toward a more normal range. The theory for this is that bright light exposure in the morning shuts off the production of melatonin early and initiates the activity phase of our circadian rhythm cycle."

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ampr/lightsleep.html

Sincerely, Bill Starr
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Columbus, Indiana (Bartholomew County)
Sat, 3 Dec 2005

Evansville CourierPress: Daniels not in favor of Central vs. Eastern time referendum