Russia profits from saying no to games with time

It seems that the dispute between physicians, scientists, and common, yet concerned citizens of Russia, about the periodic switches between "summer" and "winter" time has finally come to an end. Experts with the Russian Industry for Trade calculated that Russia currently receives substantial profits with no apparent effect on the economy.

The Ministry for Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has recently ended the debate about the "winter" and "summer" time. According to officials, there is no reason to conduct yet another time reform. More importantly, the now established order is optimal, the letter said, which the Ministry sent to State Duma deputies, in response to the December inquiry from the Liberal and Democratic Party.

How did the question related to astronomy and medicine find itself on the agenda of an economic institution? The Ministry for Industry and Trade includes the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart). The latter, in turn, supervises the work of the state service of time, frequency and the parameters of the Earth's rotation.

If we look back in time - the idea to set the clock back and forth, adjusting time to people's needs, saw the light out of purely economic considerations. Before the 20th century, our ancestors lived quietly in their local astronomical time. They were guided by the sun, going to bed at sunset and getting up at sunrise. They would set the clocks at 12:00, when the Sun was at its zenith, and were quite happy.

Railroad workers were the first to rebel against such traditions. As the sun shines on different parts of land differently, it became difficult to make up train schedules. As a result, in the middle of the 19th century, Britain and then the United States and Canada introduced standard time for their railways.

After various reforms, the world created a system of 24 time zones, with the zero reference point on what is called the Greenwich meridian. Administrative and business life was balanced out, but it led to the appearance of an unpleasant side effect. Due to the fact that working day would start and end on the strictly set standard time, which did not coincide with the annual cycle of the sun, energy costs increased. It hit Britain especially hard, as the country depended on imported resources.

The British government decided to play another game with time. In order to extend the time of daylight, and therefore, save on electricity, they started to switch time twice a year: one hour ahead in summer and one hour back in winter. During the First World War, Germany and Austria-Hungary did the same, for the same purpose.

Russia adopted the idea of ​​dividing time into summertime and wintertime in 1917. The move was initiated by the Provisional Government that ordered on  July 1 to put the clock one hour forward. Thus, the new Russia and then the Soviet Union took over the well-established tradition to move time closer to the sun. On June 16, 1930, the Soviet People's Committee ordered to set the clock one hour forward against Standard Time. Afterwards, they left time alone, and before 1981, the whole country was living an hour ahead the natural solar time.

In 1981, the Soviet Union returned to the practice of daylight time savings. The practice lasted before the summer of 2011, when then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree abolishing the transition to winter time. As a result, Russian residents are two hours ahead standard time.

The initiative immediately split the country into two camps - supporters and opponents. Games with time have always had their opponents. Back in the eighties, doctors and psychologists described a whole bunch of unpleasant effects associated with time jumps: cardiovascular diseases, increased injuries, abnormalities during pregnancy, depression and suicidal tendencies. 

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democratic Party of the State Duma calls to return to the system before 2011, and restore natural astronomical time, abandoning seasonal changes. Medics say that it is not the fact of life by the sun that causes damage healthwise, but regular jumps from winter to summer time and back. Moreover, as reported by Kommersant, researchers came to conclusion that for Russia "options of seasonal time changes and constant summer time are equal." Specialists of the State Research Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry named after Serbsky said in response to the request from the Ministry that the current summer time was most favorable to people's mental health.

In turn, officials say: a step back to "natural astronomical time" would lead to "an extremely sharp decline of effectively used daylight hours after the end of the working day from 6 to 11 p.m."

Ilya Nikonov

Pravda.Ru

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Author`s name Dmitry Sudakov
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