Convert a pollutant concentration to its air quality category

Source: R/convert_to_index.R

This functions converts a pollutant value in its original units into one of the 5 categories used by the Mexican government to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is and its health risks.

convert_to_index(value, pollutant)

Arguments

value

a numeric vector of values to convert to index
pollutant

type of pollutant. A vector of one or more of the following options:

  • "SO2" - Sulfur Dioxide - ppb (24 hour average)

  • "CO" - Carbon Monoxide - ppm (8 hour average)

  • "NO2" - Nitrogen Dioxide - pbb (1 hour average)

  • "O3" - Ozone ppb (1 hour average)

  • "PM10" - Particulate matter 10 micrometers or less (24 hour average)

  • "PM25" - Particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less (24 hour average)

Value

the IMECA value of the concentration indexed into 5 categories

BUENA

Good: 0-50 minimal health risk

REGULAR

Regular: 51-100 moderate health effects

MALA

Bad: 101-150 sensitive groups may suffer adverse heatlh effects

MUY MALA

Very Bad: 151-200 everyone can experience negative health effects

EXTREMADAMENTE MALA

Extremely Bad: > 200 serious health issues

See also

NADF-009-AIRE-2006

Other convert functions: convert_to_imeca

Examples

convert_to_index(c(12.1, 215, 355), c("PM25", "PM10", "PM10"))
#> [1] "REGULAR"             "MUY MALA"            "EXTREMADAMENTE MALA"