diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index d27eb9a1..b52bd79d 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: gDRutils
 Type: Package
 Title: A package with helper functions for processing drug response data
-Version: 1.5.1
+Version: 1.5.2
 Date: 2024-11-05
 Authors@R: c(person("Bartosz", "Czech", role=c("aut"),
                    comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-9908-3007")),
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index a9f9de03..046e9c27 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ export(get_default_identifiers)
 export(get_duplicated_rows)
 export(get_env_assay_names)
 export(get_env_identifiers)
+export(get_env_var)
 export(get_expect_one_identifiers)
 export(get_experiment_groups)
 export(get_header)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 7151b930..cd989f6d 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+## gDRutils 1.5.2 - 2024-11-05
+* add `get_env_var` helper
+
 ## gDRutils 1.5.1 - 2024-11-05
 * synchronize Bioconductor and GitHub versioning
 
diff --git a/R/duplicates.R b/R/duplicates.R
index 95173e8f..f2208995 100644
--- a/R/duplicates.R
+++ b/R/duplicates.R
@@ -185,3 +185,4 @@ throw_msg_if_duplicates <- function(dt, assay_name = "unknown", msg_f = stop, pr
      msg_f(paste0(msg, msg2, msg3))
   }
 }
+
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index c3fd7861..69ce7b59 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -761,3 +761,23 @@ calc_sd <- function(x) {
   }
 }
 
+
+
+#' safe wrapper of Sys.getenv()
+#' 
+#' So far the helper is needed to handle env vars containing `:` 
+#' for which the backslash  is automatically added in some contexts
+#' and R could not get the original value for these env vars.
+#' 
+#' @param x string with the name of the environemntal variable
+#' @param ... additional params for Sys.getenev
+#' @keywords package_utils
+#' 
+#' @examples 
+#' get_env_var("HOME")
+#
+#' @export 
+#' @return sanitized value of the env variable
+get_env_var <- function(x, ...) {
+  gsub("\\\\", "", Sys.getenv(x, ...))
+}
diff --git a/man/get_env_var.Rd b/man/get_env_var.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c9ef9220
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/get_env_var.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/utils.R
+\name{get_env_var}
+\alias{get_env_var}
+\title{safe wrapper of Sys.getenv()}
+\usage{
+get_env_var(x, ...)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{x}{string with the name of the environemntal variable}
+
+\item{...}{additional params for Sys.getenev}
+}
+\value{
+sanitized value of the env variable
+}
+\description{
+So far the helper is needed to handle env vars containing \code{:}
+for which the backslash  is automatically added in some contexts
+and R could not get the original value for these env vars.
+}
+\examples{
+get_env_var("HOME")
+}
+\keyword{package_utils}