Ambient ozone exposure and mental health: A systematic review of epidemiological studies

Highlights: • 31 studies concerned about ozone and mental health outcomes were reviewed. • Inconclusive evidence on ozone and autism, cognitive decline, depression and suicide. • Currently evidence is inconclusive and more high quality studies are needed. An increasing number of studies have suggested adverse effects of air pollution on mental health. Given the potentially negative impacts of ozone exposure on the immune and nervous system driven from animal experiments, ozone might also affect mental health. However, no systematic synthesis of the relevant literature has been conducted yet. This paper reviews the studies that assessed the link between ozone exposure and mental health thus far.