Oral Histories

Interview of Christine Oliver

Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Dr. Oliver has an MD, MPH, and MS. President of Occupational Health Initiatives, Inc. Professor in the Occupational and Environmental Health Division of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in Toronto, ON. Member of the Ontario Task Force on Environmental Health. Consultant to Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers. Board member of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. Testified before Congress and OSHA on issues related workplace exposures.
Series:
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness
Topic:
Environmental Illness
Social Movements
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Dr. Oliver has an MD, MPH, and MS. President of Occupational Health Initiatives, Inc. Professor in the Occupational and Environmental Health Division of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in Toronto, ON. Member of the Ontario Task Force on Environmental Health. Consultant to Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers. Board member of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. Testified before Congress and OSHA on issues related workplace exposures.
Interviewer:
Yiu, Wei Si Nic
Interviewee:
Oliver, Christine
Persons Present:
Oliver and Yiu
Place Conducted:
The interview was conducted using the Zoom video conferencing platform.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research.
Interviewer Background and Preparation:
This interview was conducted by Wei Si Nic Yiu, a graduate student researcher, for the Center for the Study of Women; PhD student in Gender Studies, UCLA. Yiu’s dissertation focuses on queerness and archives of Asia.
Processing of Interview:
The interviewer prepared for the interview by reading a pre-interview questionnaire completed by the narrator.
Length:
1.5 hrs
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Audio:
Series Statement:
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability related to chronic, low-dose exposure to toxicant chemicals. The procurement of this collection (from March 2019 through September 2020) was sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women under the directorship of Rachel C. Lee, with interviews conducted by six undergraduates, five graduate students, two career staff, and two faculty members at CSW.
Personal Background--Moving to and from different places for college and medical school and residency--Transitioning from primary care to environmental medicine and discovering MCS--Experience in Ontario Task Force--Barriers for people getting adequate care--Interconnections of MCS, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia--Coronavirus pandemic and MCS--What accessible public access look like for her--Lack of research for MCS--Research efforts in Canada versus in the United States--Gender and race and MCS
Relationship with people who react to chemicals--Advocacy for people living with MCS--Strategies to get accommodations for patients--Advocacy that she is proud of--Barriers for people with MCS to obtain health care--Steps that could change people’s relationship with smells