Medical experts are calling for daylight saving to be scrapped this year due to concerns that turning clocks forward by one hour could have negative health impacts.
Melbourne professor Paul Zimmet is worried that health risks associated with losing an hour of sleep on the changeover day could be made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
“In terms of the scientific evidence, which we will want to stick with at the moment, there are more heart attacks just after daylight saving, more road accidents, and then you’ve got workplace accidents, car accidents and their implications,” the Monash University Professor of Diabetes told 3AW.
“There is also cognitive dysfunction in relation to the daylight saving and the change in timing to our normal body rhythms.”
Daylight saving will start at 2am on October 4, with residents in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania turning their clocks forward by an hour.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews rejected the idea the annual event should be cancelled.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to the professor, who may be a very learned individual,” Andrews said during his COVID press conference on Wednesday.
“Daylight savings will be proceeding. That’s why the curfew changes, that extra hour is really important.
“This will be a summer like no other and daylight saving, I can confirm, will be a feature of it.”
Source: 7news
