When you breathe arsenic for 150 euros more

In order to live in Serbia outside the three biggest cities, and earn a six-figure salary salary, you have something to regret. Although it sounds pompous, a six-figure salary means earnings that are higher than 100.000 dinars, and citizens who want it must close their eyes, but also prepare their respiratory organs - for up to 40 times worse air than is allowed. That seems to be the price of a 15 to 20 percent fuller envelope.

Thus, in Serbia, more than 100.000 dinars outside of Belgrade, Novi Sad and only one municipality in Niš are earned exclusively by cities and municipalities where there are mines or thermal power plants. These are Majdanpek, Kostolac, Pancevo, and the inhabitants of Bor can boast that they are among the richest.

They earn an average of 120.978 dinars per month, while the national average is 103.519 dinars as a lump sum, i.e. when taxes and contributions are deducted, are the latest data from the Republic Institute of Statistics.

These figures are especially pronounced if you notice that people in Bojnik receive 71.000 dinars per month, in Crna Trava 74.000, in Gadžina Han 75.000, and in Žitorađa 76.000 dinars, which they should distribute over the whole month.

What's on the other bowl?

The Republic Institute of Statistics was free to take a list of places with heavy industry, i.e. dirty energy, to look at where the air pollution is the highest and would already know where citizens are paid the most outside of the biggest cities.

Although the residents of Bor are about 20 percent better off financially than the national average, air pollution does not follow the same pattern. Arsenic, cadmium and lead can be found in the air in Bor, and the concentrations are several tens of times higher than allowed. Jugopetrol is the worst at the measuring point, the "Report on Ambient Air Quality Testing in Bor" of the Institute for Mining and Metallurgy from this city last year showed.

The concentration of cadmium ranged from 0,16 to 211,2 per cubic meter, i.e. 42 times more than the permitted maximum, and arsenic 139,7, which is 23 times more than the maximum permitted concentration.

Pollution in Bor is at a historical minimum, at least in the last year and a half, judging by the reports from the measuring stations in that mining place, and the air is cleaner, according to the data of the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, while the local government and some ministers and directors of public companies boast about it, experts emphasize that it is not the complete picture. Pollution measured by the Agency, primarily sulfur dioxide pollution, is less than before, but heavy metals and arsenic, i.e. substances particularly dangerous to health, are still many times more, Insider writes.

According to research by domestic institutions, pollution is the cause of increased morbidity and mortality from malignant and other diseases in Bor. The best information is probably that the resident of Bor, according to the latest relevant data, lives 10 years shorter than the average Serb.

Who else is on the list of highest earners

In Serbia, residents of certain Belgrade municipalities, such as those from Vračar, Novi Belgrade, Savski venc, and Stari Grad, earn the most on average. Thus, the Belgrade region is by far the richest, because the citizens of Belgrade receive an average of 130.000 dinars per month.

A resident of Vojvodina earns about 97.000 dinars in one month, a resident of Šumadina earns as much as 10.000 dinars less, as do residents living in the south and east of the country.