Issue loading python env variable with getenv()

Question

I set a variable with in the UI for `dbsslmode` to `require` but it does not seem to load. 
`assert getenv("dbsslmode") == "require"`
```
File "/app/fb_models.py", line 16, in 
assert getenv("dbsslmode") == "require"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AssertionError
```
I added this assert because I was getting a None type error on the env variable.
I must be doing something stupid.

I am using `load_dotenv()` but I dont this this is causing the issue.