diff --git a/util/aio-posix.c b/util/aio-posix.c
index 5946ac09f0..1427f49b4a 100644
--- a/util/aio-posix.c
+++ b/util/aio-posix.c
@@ -701,13 +701,6 @@ bool aio_poll(AioContext *ctx, bool blocking)
 
 void aio_context_setup(AioContext *ctx)
 {
-    /* TODO remove this in final patch submission */
-    if (getenv("QEMU_AIO_POLL_MAX_NS")) {
-        fprintf(stderr, "The QEMU_AIO_POLL_MAX_NS environment variable has "
-                "been replaced with -object iothread,poll-max-ns=NUM\n");
-        exit(1);
-    }
-
 #ifdef CONFIG_EPOLL_CREATE1
     assert(!ctx->epollfd);
     ctx->epollfd = epoll_create1(EPOLL_CLOEXEC);