Mexico Is Ending Daylight Saving Time

For many in North America, the practice of Daylight Saving Time (DST) where people set clocks forward by one hour in the spring and then back by one hour in autumn is an unnecessary affair. The United States Senate recently passed a bill ending the practice. Now, its neighbor to the south is following suit, as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador submitted a bill to end setting the clocks for DST as well.

The Associated Press reported that López Obrador submitted a bill about it last Tuesday. This will put an end to the practice of setting the clocks twice a year to align waking hours with daylight hours as days or nights become longer, depending on the time of year.

Mexico Is Coming Back to 'God's Time,' Says Health Secretary

With the new bill being submitted, this would mean that darkness will fall an hour earlier during the summer as Mexico will be using Standard Time (ST) for the entire year. Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said that Mexico should return to "God's clock."

The bill has not been signed yet, so Mexicans will still be setting their clocks back later this year on October 30, before setting it ahead once again on April 3. If approved, however, the changes will be applied next year.

Mexico Daily News reported that López Obrador has been a longtime critic of the custom, which was first introduced in Mexico in 1995. The Mexican president stated that a study by the Ministry of Energy in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the Federal Electricity Commission saves about 1 billion Mexican pesos a year. However, López Obrador argues that the practice has greater damage to health, and this is much more important than economic savings.

This is in reference to a 2021 study by the National Autonomous University's Faculty of Medicine. It found that changing the clocks twice a year may cause flu, drowsiness, eating and digestive disorders, and headaches, as well as other problems. The president argued that the practice has proven to cause stress and harm health. However, he added that eliminating the practice ultimately falls on the people of Mexico,

The Economic Risks of Eliminating Daylight Saving Time

While a bill has passed in the United States Senate, it still has not passed the U.S. Congress. This means that Americans are still practicing DST. With Mexico looking to eliminate the practice and it still not being fully eliminated in the U.S., this would mean that Central Mexico, which covers most of the country, will be two hours behind the U.S. East Coast. Unfortunately for Mexico, this may cause some problems with the financial markets because of the time difference.

Economists argued that the energy savings will be minimal and Mexican financial markets will fall behind because of the 2-hour difference. It might also cause some day-to-day problems for ordinary Mexicans. ABC News has reported that businesses that close late could close earlier as Mexicans tend not to stay outside when it gets dark because of rampant crime.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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