Is Rose Quartz Toxic? (Stop and Read This First)

Yes, technically rose quartz is toxic.

However, this really isn’t the end of the discussion about the dangerousness of rose quartz.

The thing about minerals and crystals is that while most of them are safe to handle, some of them are not, and then with others, it depends on the situation.

In this article we’ll explain the ins and outs of rose quartz, so you can keep yourself safe.

What does toxic mean?

“Toxic” can mean many things. Before we get started, we think it is important to make sure we all understand what it means in this context to us.

We think of “toxic” to mean “containing a material capable of causing serious injury or death.”

Understanding What Makes Rose Quartz Dangerous

Many crystals have neat sounding names that hide what the material is actually made up of.

Tiger Eye is made up of silicon and oxygen, while malachite is made up of copper, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

Knowing what these materials are made up give us much of the information to assess a particular material.

Rose quartz is a kind of quartz that is pink or rose in coloring.

It can sometimes be confused with strawberry quartz.

The color is attributed to trace amounts of iron, manganese and/or titanium, as well as aluminum and phosphate.

Quartz itself is made up of silicon and oxygen.

It’s chemical formula is SiO₂. It is hard (7 on the Moh’s hardness scale), not water soluble, and pretty stable all the way around.

Rose quartz is not a separate element or compound. It is a mixture of quartz and the other trace elements which give the stone it’s coloring.

Understanding the potential toxicity of a piece of rose quartz means understanding quartz and then also the trace elements.

Is quartz toxic?

In general when people ask this question on the internet, what they really want to know is whether or not quartz is dangerous to them in any way.

In every case, this is going to depend on what people are doing with the material.

If someone was going to just hold a piece of quartz in their hand, wear it in jewelry, or even put it in the bath with them, there would be no concerns about the toxicity of quartz.

However, quartz is composed of silicon.

Silicon is not something that humans want to take into their bodies in any way.

Prolonged inhalation of particulate silicon (or quartz) is known to cause some pretty serious injury to the lungs, and even death.

This is why you will see forms of quartz listed as “high risk” in some toxicity tables.

The first thing we did above after the introduction is remind everyone what toxic means: “containing a material capable of causing serious injury or death.”

Under this definition, quartz is toxic, no question. Silicon is definitely a material capable of causing serious injury or death.

Is rose quartz more toxic than regular quartz?

Rose quartz is a mixture of quartz with other elements, like metals iron, titanium, and manganese.

The composition of each piece of rose quartz, even rose quartz found in the same location, can and will vary.

Each of the other elements are toxic on their own (meaning capable of causing serious injury or death).

In most cases though, these elements are present in very small amounts, mixed pretty well throughout the quartz.

Given that quartz is the dominant material, and as such rose retains basically all of the characteristics of regular old quartz with the exception of color (such as hardness and solubility), we take the position that rose quartz is no more dangerous (or toxic) than quartz alone.

Handling Rose Quartz Safely

Despite its toxic composition, we take the position that rose quartz (and most other forms of quartz) pose little risk to crystals practitioners and enthusiasts.

Certainly consuming or breathing in silicon or any of the trace metals in the material in any significant amounts could be harmful to the body.

But it is pretty darn unlikely that you will every be put in a position to ingest or inhale that much rose quartz if you are a hobbyist.

Now, there are a few places were you might be put into a position of danger while working with rose quartz.

The first is is during mining, cleaning, grinding, cutting, and polishing quartz.

Mining, cutting, grinding, shaping, and polishing quartz (especially with tools) can throw up a lot of fine quartz particulate into the air.

This dust can get into the body via the mouth, nose, and eyes.

Needless to say, this is not good for you. In general, when working with quartz (or any other stone/mineral/gem) is is recommended across the board that you protect yourself from breathing in the dust you create.

Here are our recommendations when working with minerals and crystals:

Wear a dust mask at the very least to protect the nose and mouth airways. If you are working with materials containing metals like copper, arsenic, or asbestos, a respirator would be even better.

Do your work in a well ventilated space.

Wear goggles or other eye protection to keep the dust out.

Change clothes after you finish your session to avoid bringing the dust into the house.

Clean your workstation with your protective gear on as well.

Drinking Ground Up Crystals

Some crystals practitioners place crystals in their water to create “crystal-infused water.” Others will actually grind up crystals, gemstones, and other minerals and add them to concoctions.

As you can gather, knowing what is in these crystals and minerals means that we pretty much frown on this practice.

Let’s say that someone wanted to use rose quartz in their bathtub, or in their water to create a crystal infusion of some kind.

Since quartz is not water soluble, pretty hard, and not reactive in water, we see little concern.

The silicon won’t be able to get into the water and then subsequently into your body.

But when someone is going to grind up small pieces of rose quartz with unknown levels of trace metals or potentially other substances (like arsenic, asbestos, or even mercury) and then drink it down….this just seems like madness.

Summary

To wrap up the question, is rose quartz toxic, our answer is yes, rose quartz is toxic.

However, there is very little concern about working with the material so long as you don’t inhale it or consume it.

Want to learn more about minerals, crystals, and gems? Check out our blog for our latest articles.