Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, prosp. Akademika Koptyuga 4, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russian FederationIsospin symmetry breaking is discussed as a tool for studying the nature and production mechanisms of light scalar mesons. We are concerned with isospin breaking effects with an amplitude ∼ √ m d − mu (instead of the usual ∼ m d − mu), where mu and m d are the u and d quark masses, whose magnitude and phase vary with energy in a resonance-like way characteristic of the KK threshold region. We consider a variety of reactions that can experimentally reveal (or have revealed) the mixing of a 0 0 (980) and f0 (980) resonances that breaks the isotopic invariance due to the mass difference between K + and K 0 mesons. Experimental results on the search for a 0 0 (980) − f0(980) mixing in f1(1285) → f0(980)π 0 → π + π − π 0 and η(1405) → f0(980)π 0 → π + π − π 0 decays suggest a broader perspective on the isotopic symmetry breaking effects due to the K + and K 0 mass difference. It has become clear that not only the a 0 0 (980) − f0(980) mixing but also any mechanism producing KK pairs with a definite isospin in an S wave gives rise to such effects, thus suggesting a new tool for studying the nature and production mechanisms of light scalars. Of particular interest is the case of a large isotopic symmetry breaking in the η(1405) → f0(980)π 0 → π + π − π 0 decay due to the occurrence of anomalous Landau thresholds (logarithmic triangle singularities), i.e., due to the η(1405) → (K * K +K * K) → (K + K − + K 0K 0 )π 0 → f0(980)π 0 → π + π − π 0 transition (where it is of fundamental importance that the K * meson has a finite width).