ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Since August 2023, a new air-quality study has been underway in Central Florida, funded by the EPA for $500,000. The project began in Parramore, with researchers asking people across Orange County to report concerns about the air where they live.
Project manager Lawanna Gelzer says the issue became personal.
“Even I was experiencing it… when I turned 50 and I began dealing with respiratory issues… I’m like, wait a minute — I’ve never smoked," Gelzer said.
Gelzer says she started noticing respiratory problems not only in herself, but also among elderly residents across Orange County. She also points to what her late mother saw while running a childcare center in Parramore: Gelzer says many children there dealt with asthma. Those experiences helped push her to look for answers — and ultimately launch the study.
The project uses four air monitors, each costing about $50,000. They’re placed in locations for six months at a time, then the readings are compared to data from Orange County’s only federal reference monitor, located in Winter Park.
“We co-locate our monitors in Winter Park — that was the only place collecting this information. And so now with our data we can show if there’s any correlation or discrepancies… and that’s what we’re gonna report to our community,” Gelzer said.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) scale commonly used by agencies breaks down like this:
- 0–50: Good
- 51–100: Moderate
- 101–150: Unhealthy for sensitive groups
In one example shared from the project’s findings:
- The highest AQI reading in 2025 reached 105 — categorized as unhealthy for sensitive groups.
- The second-highest was 100 — moderate, but just one point away from the next risk category.
The study also found differences between neighborhoods. In Azalea Park, data from May through November of last year showed the local monitor reading about 10 AQI points higher than the Winter Park reference site — a disparity researchers describe as roughly a 30% higher air-quality risk compared with Winter Park.
Researchers say that’s just one of the gaps the study is working to document — with the goal of reporting results back to the community.