The US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has advanced understanding of traffic-related air pollution and its health impacts. Yet the research funder has not recognised car dependency itself as a structural environmental exposure that shapes population health through multiple environmental pathways beyond air quality, including traffic injuries, noise, heat, and greenhouse gas emissions. The US public health research enterprise, and the NIEHS in particular, should encourage environmental health researchers to apply their expertise to car dependency, a societal status quo with far-reaching implications for environmental justice, population health, and planetary health.
