A Chernobyl necklace is a horizontal scar at the base of the throat which results from surgery to remove a thyroid cancer caused by fallout from a nuclear accident.
Environmental 131I is taken up in the diet, and like the stable isotope 127I, is accumulated in the thyroid; once there, the high-energy beta radiation emitted by 131I significantly increases the risk of cancer.
Treatment of thyroid cancer may require surgery,[7] potentially leaving the patient with one or two horizontal scars at the base of the neck.
[6] After the Chernobyl disaster, incidents of thyroid cancer among civilians in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Poland have risen sharply.
[9] The phenomenon inspired the title of the 1999 book Bagrjane namisto ("The Crimson Necklace"), by poet and Chernobyl survivor Valentin Mikhailjuk.