Figure 4

Estimated effects of the serum levels of brominated flame retardants on serum FT3, FT4, and TSH concentrations. For the PBDE congeners, HBCD, and TBBPA the effects of levels above the LOQ were estimated. Sum of PBDE’s 47, 99, 100, and 153 was logarithmically transformed and the effects of its two-fold increase were estimated. All models were adjusted for: gender, age, BMI and blood lipids. Additionally, type of education (general secondary education versus other), the highest level of education of the parents (using three indicator variables), whether or not the parents own the house, smoking, passive smoking, physical activity, alcohol use, fish consumption, BMI, the logarithm of blood lead and the logarithm of the sum of serum PCB’s 138, 153 and 180 were included in the model based on the stepwise regression procedure with p = 0.15 for entering and p = 0.10 for remaining in the model.