Palisades-News-March-18-2015

Palisades News
March 18, 2015 A forum for open discussion of community issues
Page 7
Daylight-Saving Time Rationale Questioned
If someone told you a national policy would increase
the risk of having a heart attack and getting into a
traffic accident, would you blithely go along with
it? Never question it?
Welcome to Daylight-Saving Time. Repeated studies
have shown that traffic accidents increase on the Monday
following the start of DST, and the risk of having a heart
attack increases in the first three days after switching to
DST. Maybe California should join Arizona and Hawaii
and leave the clocks alone.
DST was called “fast time” when President Woodrow
Wilson signed it into law in 1918 to support the war effort.
Writing for the History Channel (“8 Things You May
Not Know about Daylight-Saving Time”), Christopher
Klein points out, “In fact, the agriculture industry was
deeply opposed to the time switch when it was first
implemented. The sun, not the clock, dictated farmers’
schedules, so daylight saving was very disruptive. Farmers
had to wait an extra hour for dew to evaporate to harvest
hay, hired hands worked less since they still left at the same
time for dinner and cows weren’t ready to be milked an
hour earlier. Agrarian interests led the fight for the 1919
repeal of national daylight-saving time, which passed
after Congress voted to override President Woodrow
Wilson’s veto. Rather than rural interests, it has been
urban entities such as retail outlets and recreational
Hard Facts about
Measles Vaccination
Ryan Morelli’s letter [“Objections to Editorial and
Cartoon about Measles”] in your March 4 edition
suggests that the measles vaccine has caused more
deaths than measles itself between 2004-2015.
While I do not know Mr. Morelli’s background, I have
been a pediatric RN since 1989 with an advanced degree
in health service administration. I am currently a pediatric
triage nurse at Cedars-Sinai. I feel I am qualified to
comment on his letter.
The writer quotes his facts from the VAERS database,
which is co-sponsored by the CDC and the FDA. What
he fails to cite is that VAERS clearly states that “no cause
and effect relationship is established between vaccines
and resulting deaths. The event (of severe adverse
reaction/death) may be related to underlying disease or
a condition, by concurrent meds or by chance.”
According to data from the World Health Organization,
15.6 million deaths from measles were prevented by the
vaccination between 2000-2013. The National Vaccine
Information Center, which uses data obtained from
VAERS, states that since 1990 there have been 329
deaths linked to the measles vaccine. Those statistics
are overwhelmingly in favor of vaccination.
There is no money to be made on vaccines for the
physician. The only vested interest health professionals
have in pushing vaccines is that they save lives and
prevent debilitating complications.
The reason there were no cases of measles in the U.S.
between 2004 through the start of this year is because
EDITORIAL
businesses that have championed daylight saving over
the decades.” Despite the repeal, some cities—including
Pittsburgh, Boston, and New York—continued to use
DST. During World War II, DST was called “War Time”
and was implemented after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
After the war, states and localities were free to choose
when and if they would observe DST. Time confusion
led Congress to establish the Uniform Time Act of 1966,
stating that DST would begin on the last Sunday of April
and end on the last Sunday of October. States could pass
a local ordinance to be exempt.
The current DST schedule was introduced in 2007
and follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005, starting on
the second Sunday in March and ending on the first
Sunday in November.
How much energy does the country save by moving
clocks an hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in
the fall? In the 1970s, a U.S. Department of Transportation
study concluded that total electricity savings associated
with daylight saving time amounted to about one percent
in the spring and fall months.
By contrast, in the summer months, economists at
UC Santa Barbara have calculated that Indiana’s move to
statewide daylightsaving time in 2006 led to a one-percent
rise in residential electricity use through additional
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
measles was eradicated due to the vaccine.
Guess what? It’s back and it is time to start protecting
our babies, our children who cannot get the vaccine,
and our immune-compromised friends and neighbors.
There is no downside unless you have a medical reason
to not get the vaccine. Please vaccinate. The alternative
can be tragic.
Sue Marguleas, RN, MPA
Dog Also Attacked
Thanks for the article, “Doggy Politics in the ‘Hood’”
by Marci Slade Crestani, February 18.
My 12-pound dog has been attacked by large off-leash
dogs three times. I asked a man to leash his dog this
morning; he ignored me. I asked a man last week to
leash two dogs; he ignored me. I now carry pepper
spray whenever I walk my dog.
Patty Detroit
Cost for Technical Support For
Incline Project Is Outlandish
I thought I had become inured to the outlandish price
tags on public projects, what with the surcharges for
nepotism, graft, fraud, mismanagement and downright
incompetence.
Even I was shocked, however, to learn, from the
cover story in the February 4 issue [“California Incline
Update”] that Wallace, Roberts & Todd will be paid
“almost $3 million” [according to Santa Monica City
records] to provide 365 days of “technical support” to
demand for air conditioning on summer evenings.
Additionally, there are no current studies to document
the increased demand for energy during evening hours
for electronic devices such as cell phones and computers.
There are no studies to document the effect on the
increasing number of people who work split and
evening shifts and the amount of energy savings, if any.
The California Energy Commission did a report on the
effects of Daylight-Saving Time on California electricity
use in 2001. The study concluded that both winter
daylight-saving time and the summer season double
daylight-saving time would probably save marginal
amounts of electricity.
That same year, the California state legislature sent a
Senate Joint Resolution to the White House and Congress
asking to be allowed to extend DST year-round, but it
was never acted on.
A 2007 California report stated that DST effects had
no statistically significant effect on total daily electricity
use in the month of March 2007. And according to a 2013
Rasmussen Report, only 37 percent of Americans see the
purpose of DST, compared to 45 percent the year before.
Maybe it’s time to re-examine a policy instituted
during World War I that today has questionable energy
conservation effects.
the Incline project as “engineer of record.”
Apparently, the time and expertise of this firm is worth
$8,219 per day or $1,027 per hour for an eight-hour
workday. Given that the median income, even among the
affluent, highly-educated citizens of the Palisades, is less
than $100 per hour, I am left to wonder how those elected
to represent our interests sleep at night after approving
such high expenditures of our hard-earned tax dollars.
Lisa Wolf
In Response to
‘No Monday Breakfast’
I read in the March 4 “Heard about Town” column
that locals are bummed about the lack of places to eat
breakfast. Please let Palisadians know that The Yogurt
Shoppe on Swarthmore is open for breakfast.
We offer 20+ different cereals (and yes, some healthy)
along with regular and flavored yogurt, granola options,
oatmeal, a wide variety of fresh fruits and choice of milk
(oh, and we also offer shakes). Open daily for breakfast
7 to 10 a.m. and 8 to 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Kevin Sabin
(Editor’s Note: Additionally, Tivoli owner Sohail
Fatoorechi has started opening at 8 a.m. daily for people
who need a meeting place for breakfast.)
Palisades News welcomes all letters, which may
be mailed to spascoe@palisadesnews.com. Please
include a name, address and telephone number so
we may reach you. Letters do not necessarily
reflect the viewpoint of the Palisades News.