As fires rage uncontrolled in Canada, air quality concerns across the country have sparked a national debate regarding the level of healthy threat it poses.
UCF School of Public Administration Professor Thomas Bryer has spent countless hours working with students and the American Science Foundation to engineer, develop and create an online air quality database.
This includes a physical device and a website that posts the device’s findings.
Bryer said Florida has fortunately been spared from air pollution caused by fires in the far north. However, he said record heat and humidity currently circulating in Florida makes the air heavier on your body, which increases pressure.
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“If you take that and combine it with poor air quality, it’s a double whammy,” Bryer said. “The high heat, the high humidity in line with the poor air quality is a recipe for a heat attack and other heart ailments.”
The researchers’ online database currently shows air quality reports for several Orange County neighborhoods.
“What we have are low-cost, neighborhood-based monitors that can tell someone just outside their house how is the air quality. How’s the air quality in my house next to a freeway?” Bryer said.
Bryer said heat effects on air quality will continue to be a concern since temperatures are expected to only increase.
“The intensity that is being experienced, it’s something that’s is unheard of in modern times, and we again need to be prepared for the unexpected,” Bryer said.
Bryer added the study is set to conclude in fall, but he hopes the censor devices and online database continue to operate as a resource for residents.
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