By adding PP to its Chemical Watchlist, ZDHC is turning a long-running safety problem into a commercial risk—pushing brands and laundries to replace spray fading with digital alternatives.
Potassium permanganate (PP)—widely sprayed to create localised “worn” effects on denim—has been added to the ZDHC Foundation’s Chemical Watchlist (v1.0, published February 2026), signalling tighter scrutiny of one of garment finishing’s most hazardous holdouts.
Jeanologia says the update formalises what factories have known for years: PP spray exposes operators to airborne micro-particles and poses serious occupational and operational safety risks, yet remains in use in parts of the supply chain. The company argues that scalable substitutes already exist—claiming it removed the need for PP spray in 2015 by industrialising laser-based finishing (with its Light Bright tool) and pairing it with G2 Ozone to deliver vintage looks without chemical spraying.
The economics are changing. As chemical management standards, transparency demands and ESG reporting harden, continuing with PP becomes less a technical choice than a liability: worker risk, compliance exposure, and reputational downside—especially for brands promising “responsible” denim. Jeanologia’s EIM platform and its 2024 finishing report also single out PP as a remaining high-risk process, reinforcing the case for substitution.
Expect buyers to tighten their Restricted Substances lists and audit focus, while laundries accelerate capex toward digital finishing to keep orders. The likely endgame is not “less PP”, but designing out PP spray entirely—with ZDHC’s watchlist acting as the market’s early warning system.
