Blazy Susan rolling papers are generally considered a safer option compared to many rolling papers on the market, though no paper you burn and inhale is completely risk-free. Their core products use natural wood pulp and plant-based fibers, food-grade dye for the signature pink color, and unbleached processing. Here’s what that actually means for your health.
What Blazy Susan Papers Are Made Of
The Classic Pink, Purple, and Unbleached lines are made from natural wood pulp and plant-based fibers. Their Shaggy’s line uses a blend of rice and wood pulp fibers. The brand markets these as vegan and non-GMO, though independent third-party certifications for those claims aren’t publicly available.
The pink color, which is the main thing people worry about, comes from a food-grade, non-toxic dye. “Food-grade” means the dye meets safety standards for ingestion, which is a higher bar than most industrial colorants. That said, food-grade safety ratings are based on eating something, not burning and inhaling it. The combustion chemistry is different, and there’s no specific research on inhaling burned food-grade pink dye. The amounts involved are tiny, but it’s worth understanding that distinction.
The Heavy Metals Problem in Rolling Papers
A study out of Santa Cruz, California tested over 110 rolling paper products for heavy metals and pesticides. The results were eye-opening: heavy metals showed up in roughly 90 percent of the products tested. The worst offenders were cellulose-based (clear) rolling papers, which exceeded California’s inhalable action limits for lead by thousands of times, essentially maxing out the lab’s instruments.
Wraps also performed poorly. About 22 percent exceeded California’s heavy metal action limits, and 58 percent contained some level of pesticides, with 21 percent exceeding state limits for those pesticides.
Blazy Susan’s standard papers are wood pulp-based, not cellulose-based, which places them outside the highest-risk category identified in that study. However, the study tested products broadly by category rather than publishing brand-by-brand results, so there’s no public lab data confirming exactly where Blazy Susan lands on the heavy metals spectrum. If this concerns you, look for brands that publish their own Certificates of Analysis with heavy metal and pesticide testing.
Bleached vs. Unbleached Matters
One of the more meaningful safety distinctions in rolling papers is whether they’ve been bleached with chlorine. Chlorine processing can leave behind trace chemicals that produce harmful byproducts when burned. Blazy Susan offers unbleached options, which avoid this issue entirely. Unbleached wood pulp papers contain minimal chemical additives and are considered one of the cleaner choices among wood pulp products.
Their standard pink papers do undergo some processing to achieve the color, so they aren’t as stripped-down as a plain unbleached paper. If minimizing chemical exposure is your priority, the unbleached line is the better pick within Blazy Susan’s range.
How Wood Pulp Compares to Rice and Hemp
Wood pulp papers tend to be thicker and burn more slowly than rice or hemp alternatives. Burning any cellulose-based material produces carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and other combustion byproducts. The general principle is simple: the thinner and simpler the paper, the fewer additional byproducts you inhale.
Rice papers burn the cleanest because they’re the thinnest and contain the least material. Hemp papers fall in a similar range. Wood pulp papers, including Blazy Susan’s main products, produce slightly more smoke from the paper itself. The difference between paper types is small relative to whatever you’re actually smoking, but it exists. Blazy Susan’s Shaggy’s line, which blends rice with wood pulp, splits the difference.
What “Safe” Actually Means Here
Most health research focuses on what people smoke rather than what they smoke it with, and specific studies on rolling paper safety are limited. That’s part of why this question is so hard to answer definitively. What we do know is that Blazy Susan avoids several of the bigger red flags: they don’t use cellulose (the material most contaminated with lead in testing), they offer unbleached options, and they use food-grade coloring rather than industrial dyes.
Within the rolling paper market, Blazy Susan sits in a reasonable spot. They’re not the absolute minimalist option (that would be an unbleached, undyed rice paper), but they avoid the most concerning materials. If the pink aesthetic matters to you and you want to reduce risk, pairing Blazy Susan’s unbleached papers with a filter tip cuts down on particulate inhalation. Switching to their rice-blend line is another small step toward cleaner combustion.