diff --git a/src/dataset/pinecone_db_handler.py b/src/dataset/pinecone_db_handler.py
index b1eecff..39e695a 100644
--- a/src/dataset/pinecone_db_handler.py
+++ b/src/dataset/pinecone_db_handler.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import os
 import json
 import pinecone
 
-from .settings import PINECONE_INDEX_NAME, PINECONE_VALUES_DIMS, PINECONE_METRIC, PINECONE_METADATA_ENTRIES
+from .settings import PINECONE_INDEX_NAME, PINECONE_VALUES_DIMS, PINECONE_METRIC, PINECONE_METADATA_ENTRIES, PINECONE_API_KEY, PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT
 
 import logging
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -17,9 +17,6 @@ class PineconeDB:
     ):
         self.index_name = PINECONE_INDEX_NAME
         
-        PINECONE_API_KEY = os.environ["PINECONE_API_KEY"]
-        PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT = os.environ["PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT"]
-        
         pinecone.init(
             api_key = PINECONE_API_KEY,
             environment = PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT,
diff --git a/src/dataset/settings.py b/src/dataset/settings.py
index 063f22d..4438ca8 100644
--- a/src/dataset/settings.py
+++ b/src/dataset/settings.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # dataset/settings.py
 
+import os
 from pathlib import Path
 
 ### FILE PATHS ###
@@ -19,6 +20,8 @@ PINECONE_INDEX_NAME = "stampy-chat-embeddings-test"
 PINECONE_VALUES_DIMS = EMBEDDINGS_DIMS
 PINECONE_METRIC = "cosine"
 PINECONE_METADATA_ENTRIES = ["entry_id", "source", "title", "authors", "text"]
+PINECONE_API_KEY = os.environ["PINECONE_API_KEY"]
+PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT = os.environ["PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT"]
 
 ### MISCELLANEOUS ###
 MAX_NUM_AUTHORS_IN_SIGNATURE = 3
\ No newline at end of file