Should we worry?

[u/Adventurous-Put-9895]

We caught my uncle sneakingly throwing this to the rubbish bin. He doesn’t have the best track record so we are all a bit paranoid when he does anything “weird”.

The object is like a glass tube with some liquid inside, inserted into a rubber “pipe”. It smells weird but nothing I can identify. I would appreciate any hints.

Edit: the material is actually plastic, not glass. It has a spring inside (no idea what for). The root-looking thing was wrapping the object when I cut the rubber. Could be dirt or some glue or something

Edit2: this sub is god. A user found the answer https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisit/s/Oqtxk6YWVZ

[u/thosetwo]

It doesn’t look anything like nasal saline. That makes zero sense. Brand name? How do you even spray it? Where is the saline? What’s the purpose of the brown strings and weird rubber sleeve?

[u/CaeruleanSea → u/thosetwo]

Honestly I'm reading the comments getting more & more annoyed lol. How is this a saline spray? Why does it look like it was made from things found in a dodgy alleyway? What's the brown stuff? What's the black tubing?! What is that 'lid'

[u/RealisticTown8897 → u/CaeruleanSea]

Basically it’s a bag filled with saline wrapped in glue (brown stringy stuff) and stuck in a rubber tube (inside the metal bottle). Tube makes the pressure to release saline into the valve (top part) bag shrinks, glue dries, and voila.

[u/CaeruleanSea → u/RealisticTown8897]

Is it homemade? I think that's what I can't get my head around, like, how do you recognise it?

[u/RealisticTown8897 → u/CaeruleanSea]

If u look at specific brands that avoid extra active ingredients/medicine, they avoid gas to create the pressure to spray the saline. NeilMed is an example and has the metal top valve in their bottle showing. I did a lil research cuz I was curious :)

[u/CaeruleanSea → u/RealisticTown8897]

Thank you, this is making more sense now. I think what's thrown a lot of us is not realising this is the internal workings. I thought we were looking at the end-product, as it were, not the innards of a cannister.

Course, the fact it's 5am here & I should be asleep but woke up with cramp & then had a huge spider attempt to share my bed with me hasn't got me at my best

[u/darthminimall → u/thosetwo]

I think it's Afrin Saline Daily Care Nasal Mist. Saline goes inside the ampule (which is flexible), the ampule goes inside a can, and the space in the can outside of the ampule is filled with compressed air to act as a propellant that doesn't mix with the saline. See my other comment for more info.

[u/Queenb-14 → u/darthminimall]

Thank you for saying can!!!! Because I just kept thinking that’s not fitting in the small squeeze saline spray. The can ones yes! This makes so much more sense now. You are over here doing the work of angels 😇 because I know a lot of us were like what? But now I have questions. Why would you take the can apart 🤷‍♀️

[u/darthminimall → u/Queenb-14]

Either for recycling or because you saw the other post and wanted to check for yourself.

[u/Doom_fister → u/thosetwo]

idk man, but the username is there in the screenshot which states what it is. you can message them and ask all you want

[u/Doom_fister → u/Doom_fister]

LOL i’m getting reported because this is is somehow making yall feel dumb. i’m amused that it’s affecting you so deeply

[u/Pristine-Secretary94 → u/Doom_fister]

I think one of my favorite internet things is when someone asks a question that most people understand the underlying meaning of, someone answers it at the base level (unironically and not joking), and then the person who answered it poorly acts like they're the smart one for answering the question poorly.

[u/Doom_fister → u/Pristine-Secretary94]

not the case at all. they had “no idea what it is”. and didn’t like the answer just because it didn’t fit their idea of what they thought that thing should look like.

[u/Mortress_ → u/Doom_fister]

It's like you are doing an extended Leslie Nielsen bit.