Forty-four schools being modernised and refurbished across the district had to be re-inspected after traces of asbestos were left at Cottingley Village Primary, near Bingley.
Last week the Yorkshire Post reported how asbestos dust had been found at a further four schools and now it has emerged trace elements of asbestos have also been discovered in nine more. These include Buttershaw High School, Nab Wood School and Fagley Primary.
The findings follow a Yorkshire Post special investigation which revealed fears over a new wave of asbestos victims who have never worked with nor had any apparent direct contact with the fatal fibre.
Unwitting victims include Huddersfield schoolteacher Jean Whitwam, 66, who contracted the incurable asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma while working at Outlane Infant School. She could have been exposed while stapling children's work to the walls.
Bovis Lend Lease, the company overseeing the £186m programme to upgrade Bradford's schools, said it had undertaken work using asbestos-removal contractors licensed by the Health and Safety Executive. Work was cleared by an accredited independent analyst and an air-clearance certificate was also received for each school.
Last night Miriam Murch, health and safety adviser for the Bradford branch of the National Union of Teachers, said: "This mistake should not have happened. There is something very, very wrong."
But Bovis Lend Lease, which commissioned the independent inspections after the problem at Cottingley was discovered by Bradford Council's asbestos team, insisted no traces of asbestos had been found in any occupied teaching areas.
A statement from the company said: "The small amounts of asbestos remaining are in isolated areas such as ceiling voids and do not affect surrounding areas.
"Pupils and teachers are not occupying the restricted areas and air tests from adjacent areas such as classrooms and corridors have proved negative for the presence of asbestos.
"The HSE has been fully consulted on the remedial work and the asbestos is considered low risk due to the very small am-ounts involved. In many cases the independent inspection reports refer to asbestos traces within a dust sample or a piece of asbestos the size of a match-head buried within timber in a sealed area."
Mrs Murch said teaching union representatives were to meet the council, Education Bradford and the HSE.
She added: "I am not happy at all, but I am slightly reassured that the risks to staff and pupils have been minimised only by the fact that the asbestos was in places that they would not have gone to by chance."
Affected areas have been sealed and restricted and the work should be completed during the current half-term holiday.
hannah.start@ypn.co.uk